Please join us for the opening reception of two great new shows at the AFA Gallery on February 1 from 6-9 PM. Downstairs – “Towards a Phenomenology of Space”, works by Krista Svalbonas and Upstairs – “Artifacts From the Former Black Militant Golf and Country Club”, works by Charles McGill. Both exhibitions will be on display February 1 through the 23.
Information and a word from our featured exhibiting artists:
Krista Svalbonas creates art that explores the urban landscape, describing it as hard and opaque with spaces that are ill-defined, neither deep nor wide, offering a psychological sense of control and homogeny. She has had various solo, as well as group exhibitions in places such as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and is included in private collections nationally. Svalbonas received her BFA in photography and design from Syracuse University, then went on the acquire her MFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz.
She says, “I am fascinated with the architecture of the city landscape, its tiny spaces, its overlapping structure and its constant rebirth. By painting the infrastructure of humanity I find the areas where we become aware of our own space in the world. My work is built up layers of thin colored paper, wax and pastel, one layer often obscuring or concealing another. Color, composition, and mark-making are the main organizational concerns of my work. Each piece begins in a very controlled fashion, meticulously combining layers of wax, paper and pastel, a process that could liken itself to the continual excavation and renovation of the urban landscape.”
Charles McGill uses a specific found object within his work – the traditional golf bag – in comparison to the human figure. He finds the golf bag to be a very ‘political’ object, thus having the potential to resonate with the viewer on many different levels. McGill received his AFA at Keystone College, his BFA at the School of Visual Arts, and his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has shown in both solo and group exhibitions in New York, and currently resides and works there.
McGill says, ‘”I began using the golf bag as ‘found’ object/motif by exploring its relationship to the human figure, specifically the headless and limbless torso. I collaged race-sex-class-inspired imagery to the surface with meticulous care and attention to make a beautiful object. Recently the focus has shifted away from the surface to the bag’s intrinsic structure and hardware.”
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