1078 Gallery Hours:
Thu–Sat
12:30–5:30 p.m.
and for our many events.
exhibitions
Summer Stock: Charmaine Banach + Monique Janssen-Belitz + Jeff Sully
July 21—August 20, 2011
Jeffrey Sully | Monique Janssen-Belitz | Charmaine Banach
Summer Stock Reception
Jeffrey Sully began painting watercolors of his dreams at an early age. In his twenties he began to paint on a larger scale, and attended the San Francisco Art Institute. At the same time Jeffrey was also working with wood, carving, then painting the shaped surfaces. Using the skills he learned through sculpting wood, he began building canvases in unusual, evocative forms. The paintings have been influenced by a range of ethnic art and artifacts, from Pygmy bark paintings to Sumerian clay coins, to Tibetan textiles. The paintings' non-rectangular shapes express their identities as contemporary objects, and as tangible contours of the unexpected. These pieces carry the deeply expressive spirit which has evolved in his work.
Above left:"From Another Source", 2010, 82" x 41" , Acrylic, mixed media on shaped canvas panel
Above right:"The Man Whispered What"
Monique Janssen-Belitz, who had two works in the 1078's MFA juried show 2010 Wanted: Wall Work, writes: "While not in a human voice, the land speaks to me. It tells me of its ancient people, traces its geological history and reveals the struggle of animals and flora. Time stretches deeply as the eye wanders freely before it reaches the horizon. I feel comforted in this cradle of space and time.... While creating serendipitous juxtapositions by reconfiguring torn drawings and paintings, I follow the connotations in my mind. They range from visions of the desert after global warming has turned the New Mexican high desert to a new Saharan Desert, to the discovery of uranium on reservation land with its extant reverberations in the form of pollution and disease and "memories" of the bygone Hohokam culture that shaped the Southern Arizona landscape.... As my beliefs coincide with contemporary concerns regarding preservation, restoration, environmental responsibility and sustainability, my representation of the land as a fragile vessel of time, history and beauty, implicitly requests respect and balanced stewardship for the land."
"Barren Truth", 12" x 16"
"Glittering Desire", 12" x 16"
"The Edge of Strength", 12" x 16"
Charmaine Banach, an assistant professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio, writes about her work: “My experiences as a first generation American from Polish immigrants and refugees is central to the dreamlike themes and textured stories I create. To tell my stories, I draw on years of graphic design background and a lifetime steeped in the rich, historical narratives I grew up with as a child. My family's history and experiences from Poland under Nazi occupation during WWII, as well as stories from the Soviet occupation after the war, are central themes in my work. Their tales of immigrating to America during the Eisenhower Administration "Pinko" scare and their personal struggles contrast sharply with my life of comfort. My stories reveal how I feel I am complicit as an oppressor as the Nation I call home occupies other nations with my tax dollars and perhaps too quiet protest, even while my ancestors’ memories and a century of oppression under cruel regimes lives on through me. These conflicting feelings and historical connections emerge in the form of rich, textured stories, relayed in print, interactive design, and animation.”
Banach, "Article 5"
Banach, "Bullet in Suitcase"