YIYUN CHEN (Cleveland, OH), Whispers in the Breeze 微風細語
GHISLAINE AND LANDO FREMAUX-VALDEZ (Lubbock, TX), In the Farthest Reaches
April 21 – May 24
Artist Reception and Artist Talks: Saturday May 24, 1-3 p.m.
Yiyun Chen’s photographic project, Whispers in the Breeze, began as a pastime and was prompted by the artist’s wandering as a pedestrian along Lake Erie. The project became a ritual, and then a process of self-reflection and self-discovery for the artist as an Asian immigrant – exploring the relationship between people, environment and society.
The collaborative work of partners Ghislaine and Lando Fremaux-Valdez is on a gargantuan scale, executed in gouache and pastel on paper. Each drawing naturalistically portrays one or both of the artists’ bodies (sometimes many times over), but deranges them through fragmentation, anatomical corruption, and/or pictorial chaos.
Captions; Yiyun Chen, Future, pigment print – photography, 2022; Ghislaine and Lando Fremaux-Valdez, Washing Feet / Hair Bath, Pastel and gouache on paper, 2023
INVITATIONAL: NANCY CARTWRIGHT
INVITATIONAL: AFRICAN AMERICAN VISUAL ARTS GUILD
Aug. 4 – Sept. 13
Emmy Award winning actor and artist Nancy Cartwright will exhibit her reverse-style paintings on Lucite, created using animation techniques and bright, joyful color. Much of Cartwright’s artwork is animated in nature and inspired by Picasso and Warhol. Her use of vibrant color in creating colorful pop art spans a variety of collections ranging from spotlighting societal issues to her love of animated characters.
The African American Visual Artists Guild (AAVAG), of Dayton, Ohio, was born out of the need to express visually the African American experience through a wide range of styles and subject matter using many diverse approaches and materials with a focus on communicating the artist's own spirituality. The AAVAG will exhibit their 2025 traveling exhibition, What’s New?.
Captions, left to right: Nancy Cartwright, D'oh a Deer, Reverse painting acrylic on acrylic, 2024; Nathan Conner, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Acrylic painting, 30” x 30”
19TH ANNUAL HWD JURIED SCULPTURE EXHIBITION
September 29th – November 8th
HWD (Height, Width, Depth) is an annual, juried exhibition of three-dimensional work, featuring sculptors in any medium from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. $1,600 in artist awards will be selected by the juror.
EDEN QUISPE (Newton, KS) Quilts
DENNY GERWIN (Charlotte, NC) Figurative Work
Nov. 24 – Jan. 3
In her work, Eden Quispe creates interior scenes using inherited quilting techniques, embroidery, printing, and collage. Quispe expresses the precarious balance of her multiple roles as a mother, artist and teacher with symbols and materials; her daughter’s baby clothes, grandfather's ties, and inherited fabric from her family and husband's Peruvian culture are painted and sewn upon and cut to become walls, tables, and chairs. These object memories are sewn together and printed on to create her patchwork paintings.
Denny Gerwin’s ceramic sculptures and vessels reference the female form, acknowledging artifacts created up to 30,000 years ago and illustrating universal human interest in precarious subject matter. Recognizing himself as the “other” in the equation, and noting that this is a rare position for him to sit in, the artist is grateful for lessons learned in vulnerability. More recent works in this series show clinched fists, an aberration from traditional depictions of Venus and an apt departure given the threat to women's power.
Captions, left to right: Eden Quispe, Day Mama Night Mama, 2024, stitched, printed and painted textiles; Denny Gerwin, Venus Clinched Her Fists, 2022, wood fired ceramic.
ABOUT THE GALLERY
The Kettering Health Art Gallery at Rosewood Arts Center is sponsored by the City of Kettering Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department, with support from the Ohio Arts Council. The Gallery is located in the Rosewood Arts Center, 2655 Olson Drive in Kettering, 45420.