Nancy Friedemann
ME AS WE, WE AS ME
June 12th, 2010 –September 3rd, 2010
Opening reception Saturday, June 12th, 7 – 10pm
On the Margins of a Portrait (detail), 2009, Enamel on Dibond, 36” x 144”
Nancy Friedemann appropriates handiwork from women’s culture; table runners, lace curtains, knitting, crochet, and other domestic crafts are often painted on a heroic scale. Like other artists of the Pattern and Decoration school of art, Friedemann reminds us that “decorative” is not a dirty word. In this exhibit, Me as We, We as Me, all of the paintings are executed on dibond, using enamel paint set against a black background; the images appear to be shimmering, seductive, and ghostly.
Memory and sensitivity play a fundamental role in these paintings. Friedemann incorporates the flora and fauna of her native Colombia, as well as the intricate lace made by women, often seen in colonial paintings. Friedemann says that, “in unraveling and drawing lace structures I am doing research into drawing, and creating a poetic path that marks time and expresses humanity.”
Brightly colored bunting birds appear exotic, signifying bridged cultural connections that are established through migration. Friedemann also alludes to details that may be lost in translation and stereotypes that are perpetuated. In the work, On the Margins of a Portrait, a bird carries a ribbon, the type of which can be seen in colonial retablos. The message reads, “Do you want a taco?”, and is a metaphor for the way Latinos are often stereotyped.
To quote Friedemann, “the intensive labor in making each of my works is about slowness, feeling and thinking; it is about doing a work that honors manual labor and where I manage an economy of materials. Each mark is indelible. Not being able to erase, I use enamel on a pristine industrial surface. For me, this is an important and deliberate act as an echo of the trajectory, the steps that one takes one by one in time and space. Poetically, for me, the impossibility of erasing is a metaphor of the psychological threshold that connotes existing in exile…”
In a beautiful veiled manner, much like lace, Friedemann deals with issues that are relevant to what we are currently experiencing with American immigration laws. With subtle irony, she asks us to recall our own memories and remember that ours is a country whose entire population consists of citizens whose heritages originate from all parts of the world.
Projects Room
Jill Cannady
THE NATURALISTS
The Naturalist: Didelphis virginiana, 2009, Encaustic on Ampersand™ Claybord™, 4 x 4”
“I have been fascinated by the relationship of people and animals for many years. The Naturalists series of drawings and encaustic paintings was prompted by a confluence of events, ideas and longstanding interest.
I was commissioned to paint a mural in the new chess park in DeLand, Florida. Research for the commission caused me to think about the symbols of authority and spirituality expressed in chess pieces, particularly for the royalty. While working out of doors, a bug became entangled in my hair and led eventually to my thinking of other ways of crowning, subtler and livelier than with constructions of gold and precious stones. This and my interest in the expressiveness of the human face, in this case of women, and the real and symbolic possibilities of combining them with animals in paintings all converged.
Women who are crowned suggest heroic women. Not interested in portraying historic figures, I began to create my own mythic women, expressing qualities that might not be apparent from the outside. None of these paintings are portraits, although some were posed and resemble the sitter quite accurately. Some of the women are complete fabrications, assembled from faces I see anywhere and from my experience of more than thirty years of figurative painting. All are actors in dramas of my composition.
Just as dramatic parts are written with specific actors in mind, some of my paintings are actuated by qualities I perceive in specific women I have met. This perceived quality will likely not be portrayed by me in an obvious, linear fashion. It will probably take a convoluted route to the surface in a kind of metaphoric free association. A strong, activist, dedicated woman will not motivate me to paint her in silver armor leading an army, although I might think of her that way. She is more apt to be portrayed bonding with an armored creature from the natural world.
Regardless of my sources, instigations or intentions, in the end the painting is the thing, just as the play is the thing. I strive always to make the most effective image possible without regard to message, popularity or anything else.”
Valet parking available
Bernice Steinbaum Gallery
3550 N Miami Ave – Miami, FL 33127
T 305 573 2700 – F 305 573 2722