In recent decades, America has morphed at an incredible pace. Environments are changing rapidly, molded by technology. Those that have remained untouched are increasingly remarkable. With these physiological alterations a new concept of the artistic landscape has developed. Contemporary artists have commented on these changes by rendering man-made landforms and instant cities on canvas and in print, while others are drawing attention to them by capturing dramatic skies and vibrant flora, which are increasingly precious natural phenomena.
Note: Place in Time was recently given a lengthy, thoughtful, and quite enthusiastic review in the latest issue of Art Scene. To read it, click here.
This new consciousness of habitat is explored in the exhibition Place in Time: Contemporary Landscape at Scripps College’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, and runs from November 2-December 14, 2008. Professor of art history and Director Mary Davis MacNaughton ’70 curates the exhibition with works by current women artists, representing present-day panoramas, views of real and remembered environments.
The artists, Ciel Bergman, Nancy Friese, Karen Kitchel, Rita Robillard, Sandra Mendelsohn Rubin, and Scripps alumnae Laurie Brown ’59, Monica Furmanski ’96, and Idelle Weber ’54, offer their disparate interpretations of landscape imagery through their respective aesthetics. Using various media ranging from oil on canvas, linen, and panel, to digital chromogenic photography, they depict the intersection of site and memory, provoking inquiry and reflection in the contemporary viewer.
The show launches with a panel discussion led by participating artists, supported by the Clark Fund and the Scripps Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, to be held at the gallery on Sunday, November 2 at 4 p.m. An opening reception will follow, at 5 p.m. The Williamson Gallery is located at Eleventh and Columbia, in Claremont. The exhibition and opening reception are free and open to the public. For more information, please call 909.607.3397 or e-mail Kirk Delman.