Anne Lilly
Abstractus
“Those familiar with my kinetic sculptures may see this body of work as a substantial departure. In these watercolors, I was searching for a more forgiving way to work, but one that would authentically extend from my existing vocabulary. Many of the same strategies were brought forward: grid, geometry, increments, repetition, precision, and finely-resolved detail that rewards close looking. The same intentions are transmitted as well, to integrate what is present with what is absent, to awaken a perception of absence, space, and emptiness.
In the sculptures this had involved reducing the visual mass to the merest of lines, shifting and probing a given zone of action in organic and mesmeric patterns. They were intricate and sensitive systems of movement, responsive to the slightest touch of the viewer, and confounded understanding of what was happening. But making art in that way — in stainless steel, using intensive industrial processes and components — had come to feel like trying to do yoga inside a suit of armor.
Working on paper over the last several years, I slowly realized that its flat surface could be made analogous to the fields of time and space, the “surface” of kinetic sculpture. It was possible to engage the emptiness of paper, through the quality and arrangement of the traces left upon it.
Drawing and watercolor are exquisitely responsive to, and communicative of, touch. Rather than utilize the touch of the viewer now, the work is a record of my own. What has been shed in spatial richness and drama is exchanged for new ‘zones of action’ — directness, subtlety, color, gradients, micro-marks, illusions of depth, spontaneity, nimbleness.” -Anne Lilly
Alicia Rodriguez Alvisa
You Are Here
“You Are Here is the continuation of my series of photographs You Are There, Are You There? There You Are. These photographs represent the polarities between the irrational/rational, the exterior/interior, and the motivated/resigned self.
Through compositing multiple images of myself I expose the inner battle between my two selves in regards to my insecurities and body issues. It is a work in which I focus on challenging my comfort, self-confidence, and inner strength. It started as an exploration of my own insecurities, my identity, and self-love, and it has later become an homage to every womxn.
Every womxn who no matter what they’re going through plays the sister, the daughter, the mother, the fairy, the role model, the angel in their own lives.” -Alicia Rodriguez Alvisa
Joel Janowitz
Rising
“Throughout my career, I have investigated the ways in which pictorial space can carry meaning and psychological charge. By painting in series with a range of subjects including swimmers, greenhouses, quarries, cafes, bridges, Protected Trees, most recently, my Ocean and Pool series, I have focused on developing my paintings into evocative and meditative spatial encounters. I make representational paintings not as an end in itself, but as a means to explore the emotional and painterly complexities of seemingly ordinary spaces.” -Joel Janowitz
Protected Tree Series
“For several years my neighborhood in Cambridge underwent extensive roadwork as the city upgraded the sewer system. This construction required much heavy machinery, torn up roads, and considerable protection for the street trees. For the first two years I paid no attention to the thousands of two by fours and vast yardage of orange plastic fencing that surrounded hundreds of trees. Then as these protective structures began to age and sag, I started to actually see them. I became conscious of both the beauty and the irony of so many trees bound with dead wood and petrol-plastic. I began to paint, draw, and make monotypes of this strange landscape. The new work revealed itself as an inviting and disturbing metaphor for our flawed relationship to the environment.” -Joel Janowitz
Ocean and Pool Series
“My current Ocean and Pool series began with trip to Sidney Australia in 2018 where on a chance walk along Bondi Beach I encountered Icebergs – a large public pool that abuts the ocean. There I witnessed ocean waves crashing into the pool while people blithely swam along in roped off lanes. I couldn’t have articulated what drew me to this scene but soon after returning home I began exploring the imagery. I made prints and paintings, some with tiny swimmers, some simply juxtaposing and contrasting the geometric structure of the pool with the ocean beyond. As the work developed I realized that in addition to the beauty of the vast ocean juxtaposed to the geometry of the pool, the image of explosive waves pounding into the pool spoke to our fraught relationship to climate change.” -Joel Janowitz
