OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, September 22, 5 - 7pm

ARTIST STATEMENT

"This show presents recent sculpture and watercolors with work completed in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2007.

Several trips to Oaxaca from 2005-2007, influenced the course of my work including the materials I am presently using. I was moved by the strong integration and vitality between the arts and society and the resilient cultural traditions within a contemporary context. The political atmosphere in Oaxaca through those years was torrid and vital, with teachers occupying the city center - the response to this climate by artists was evocative and bold. I was moved by the art, the passion, and the candid messages incorporated in the iconic images painted on the walls of the city. I felt compelled to quote the fugitive images to create a permanent document which could be shared with people from Oaxaca and the world beyond. I wanted to capture the unique dimension of an historical moment using traditional techniques from the region. For this reason, I chose to use weaving to produce some of the work.

In Oaxaca, I observed how the ubiquitous use of clay, from simple practical forms to traditional and contemporary artworks, resonates with the memory of its place of origin. My direction however, has been to use ceramics as a material for building open structures, rather than as the traditional vessel. With recent work, I conceive of my sculpture as islands, with articulated spaces enmeshed and folded through the body. This represents the boundaries we engineer for our comfort and survival. As in Oaxaca we are experiencing an assault on our own social values in the US. Perhaps these artworks will help to provide a space to imagine and reaffirm what truly matters." - Bruce Edelstein, 2018