Topic: ART NEWS
Arts Council of Princeton presents
New Portraiture Exhibition "The Bigger Picture"
The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) presents its newest exhibition, "The Bigger Picture," a collection of distinctive portraits curated by Maria Evans. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015 3-5pm. The artists featured in "The Bigger Picture" are: Mary DeWitt, Elise Dodeles, James Doherty, and Kim Alsbrooks. "The Bigger Picture" will be on view in the Taplin Gallery from January 17 - March 14, 2015 at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, 102 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ. Parking is available in the Spring and Hulfish Street garages as well as at metered parking along Witherspoon Street and Paul Robeson Place. To learn more, call (609) 924-8777 or visit www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.
A Gallery Talk with participating artists Mary DeWitt and Kim Alsbrooks is scheduled forSaturday, February 7 at 1pm. A second Gallery Talk with participating artists James Dohertyand Elise Dodeles is scheduled for Saturday, February 28 at 1pm. Both of these free Gallery Talks will take place in the Taplin Gallery at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts.
Each of the four portraiture artists in "The Bigger Picture" collection approaches his or her subject in an unconventional fashion. All of these artists' subjects easily invite the viewer to ponder the much bigger picture that lies just below the surface.
By depicting her portraiture on pieces of trash, Philadelphia artist Kim Alsbrooks challenges the "American mythology" and widely accepted ideals surrounding wealth and affluence. Her original series, "White Trash," included Civil War scenes, garden landscapes, fine houses and their interiors, and miniature portraits. Alsbrooks then began painting portraits of her own family members, calling the collection "White Trash Family," and soon went on to depict other privileged, wealthy families or the politically elite. Alsbrooks finds the beer and soda cans after they've been flattened in the street. She has tried to flatten them herself, but finds the trash is only "perfect" and wrinkle-free when she finds it already flattened. Cans must be found so that there are no wrinkles in the center area and so that the graphic can be well-placed to compliment the portrait. Portraits are chosen specifically for each piece of trash.
Since the late 1980's, Philadelphia artist Mary DeWitt has painted the portraits and recorded the thoughts of a select group of incarcerated women serving life sentences. Recently, she began to document the development of each portrait by taking still photographs of the work as it develops. She then adds the voice of the subject with narrative to create a video. Most of her portraits are of women sentenced to life without parole in Pennsylvania. Together these videos document the radical change in prisons from the 1970's to today. The portraits can be viewed accompanied by audio or video at http://www.marydewitt.net/MaryDeWitt/
Audio_and_Video.html.
Elise Dodeles, an artist based in Lambertville, NJ, received a 2013 Artist's Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and is included in an international survey of women artists published by Rizzoli. Dodeles uses such a large quantity of paint in her application that her surface resembles a painter's palette, built up with years of layers dried over time. She has shown her art in New York, Canada, and Europe. Exhibitions have included a solo show as part of the New Jersey Artist series at Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters and the prestigious Aljira National Five. In 2011 she was selected by juror Zoe Strauss for a solo exhibition at the William Way Community Center in Philadelphia. Raised in New York, she did her undergraduate work at Carnegie-Mellon and New York Universities, and obtained her Masters in Fine Art from the New York Academy of Art. Her artwork can be found in personal and institutional collections, including the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, Florida.
James Doherty is a contemporary figurative painter who lives in Lawrenceville, NJ, with his wife and two boys in a 1920's "Center-Hall Colonial" that is also the location of his studio where he paints daily. Jim Doherty depicts delicate women on wood he finds at a building site or at the flea market. He believes that a painting should look like it has been painted—and not like a photograph. You should see each brush stroke, each drip of paint, and each layer of color. He often leaves the bottom of his paintings unfinished so you can see the process. Doherty's work has been part of the Arts Council of Princeton's Pinot to Picasso exhibitions for the past several years.
The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP), founded in 1967, is a non-profit organization with a mission of Building Community through the Arts. Housed in the landmark Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, designed by architect Michael Graves, the ACP fulfills its mission by presenting a wide range of programs including exhibitions, performances, free community cultural events, and studio-based classes and workshops in a wide range of media. Arts Council of Princeton programs are designed to be high-quality, engaging, affordable and accessible for the diverse population of the greater Princeton region.
