Current
Local 123 Gallery:
Limina: galactic paintings and textiles
Rosalie Z Fanshel
August 12 - September 24, 2011
OPENING RECEPTION:
Friday, August 12, 7-9pm with LIVE MUSIC
Berkeley, CA August 1, 2011-- Local 123 is pleased, for it's 14th exhibition, to present Berkeley artist Rosalie Z Fanshel's new work in a show titled, Limina: galactic paintings and textiles.
Fanshel's galactic paintings and textiles engage in representation of abstract subjects, like the cosmos, but the effect is personal and intimate. Intricately crafted scenes on both canvas and fabric, which then are ornately framed, allow the mind entry to both the poetics of space and the wonder found in explaining these spaces.
Fanshel explains that she is drawn to "the paradox between the micro and the macro, the physical and the ephemeral." And in her current series, Limina, "takes up the challenge of representing the visually unrenderable: gas, light and the movement of celestial bodies so vast that they appear formless."
Fanshel bravely and consciously delves into the murky territory of deep space data representation, and in particular the images published by laboratories of elusive astrological phenomena: "My paintings challenge the scientific authority of the popular Hubble Space Telescope images, which claim to provide accurate views of galaxies but in their structure actually recapitulate cultural representations of a longing for the divine familiar since the Renaissance."
Indicating her own structure, "[t]he window or frame in each piece signals a portal between the defined world of the viewer and the expanse of universe beyond," and her own methods for construction, "[i]n my textile painting An Inside View, for example, I constructed the central galaxy figure from over 15,000 French knots, taking more than 300 hours to complete," a tangible universe comes to the forefront.
Fanshel's process fascinatingly combines cultural history, new and ancient art techniques, and personal reflection, as she describes; "Limina is a formal as well as conceptual exploration. I use archival materials, protractor and compass to carefully recreate the abstract geometric patterns employed by Islamic astronomers to map the infinite. Each piece goes through multiple iterations of hand-drawn and digital sketches. Though I take full advantage of Photoshop in preparation for a piece, I feel an urgency to master the immediate language of painting in the context of a cybernated world. Thus the series is also a serious study in the Old Master use of glazes, brushstroke and composition."
We are honored to show Fanshel remarkable Limina series at Local 123, as she aptly remarked, "in a space that focuses on local community and the local food shed, even as the imagery is of the REALLY BIG (cosmic) community."
-Emma Spertus
Curator, Local 123
For more information about the artists go to: www.rosaliezfanshel.com
For more info about this show Local 123 go to: www.local123gallery.com
Or email: espertus@gmail.com