{"id":1124,"date":"2019-07-17T18:19:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wcsu.wpengine.com\/news-archives\/womens-work-to-open\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T18:19:15","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T18:19:15","slug":"womens-work-to-open","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/womens-work-to-open\/","title":{"rendered":"WCSU 2016 &#8211; Women&#8217;s Work exhibit to open"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">&#013;<\/p>\n<div id=\"sharingTools\"><!-- #include virtual=\"\/include\/sharingtools.inc\" --><\/div>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<div id=\"breadcrumb\"><!-- #include virtual=\"\/include\/breadcrumb.inc\" --><\/div>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n    &#013;<\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/w\/newsevents\/images\/Debbie Hesse.jpg\" style=\"float:right;margin:0 0 10px 10px\" \/>DANBURY, CONN. <\/strong>\u2014 Twelve women in the visual and literary arts who completed  residencies at the <a href=\"http:\/\/vermontstudiocenter.org\/\">Vermont Studio  Center<\/a> within the past five years will exhibit their works in the  multi-media show, \u201cWomen\u2019s Work,\u201d to be presented from <strong>Thursday, Jan. 26,<\/strong> through <strong>Sunday,  March 12, 2017, <\/strong>at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/\">Western Connecticut State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>An opening reception for the artists and writers will be  held at 6 p.m. on <strong>Thursday, Jan. 26, <\/strong>in  the Art Gallery at the WCSU <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/svpa\/svpa-center.asp\">Visual  and Performing Arts Center<\/a>, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury, with a snow  date at the same time on Thursday, Feb. 2. The exhibition will be on view  during gallery hours from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 1 to  4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Cosponsors for the exhibition are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/art\/\">Department of Art<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/diversity\/\">Office of Diversity, Equity and  Multicultural Affairs<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition will feature poetry and prose pieces, paintings,  prints, sculptures, mixed-media works and installation art. Gallery visitors  will be invited to read and listen to text and audio selections from works by  the participating writers while viewing the works of visual art. Through the  diverse art forms presented in the exhibition, the artists embrace and  challenge gender roles and stereotypes often associated with women\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>Artists whose works will be shown in the exhibition include <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ninabuxenbaum.com\/\">Nina Buxenbaum<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ebkgallery.com\/gallery\/lauren-cotton\/\">Lauren Cotton<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lizdexheimer.com\/\">Elizabeth Dexheimer<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.camilleeskell.com\/\">Camille Eskell<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/tracywalterferry.com\/home.html\">Tracy Walter Ferry<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loriglavin.com\/\">Lori Glavin<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.debbiehesse.com\/\">Deborah Hesse<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/sarahtortora.com\/home.html\">Sarah Tortora<\/a>. Featured writers  include <a href=\"http:\/\/mindienglart.weebly.com\/\">Mindi Englart<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/nalinijones.com\/\">Nalini Jones<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joanseligersidney.org\/\">Joan Seliger Sidney<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.monicaong.com\/\">Monica Ong<\/a>. Buxenbaum and Ferry will  address the theme, \u201cCross-cultural Perspectives on Women, Race and Identity,\u201d in  an artist talk to be presented in the Art Gallery at 6:30 p.m. on <strong>Tuesday, Feb. 22, <\/strong>with a snow date at  the same time on Wednesday, March 1.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>Reservations to attend the opening reception and artist talk  should be made online at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com\">www.wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com<\/a>.  Admission to the reception, artist talk and exhibition will be free and the  public is invited; donations to support the programs of the Department of Art  will be accepted. <\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p>Following are biographical and artist notes for the women  whose works will be featured in the exhibition:<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nina Buxenbaum <\/strong>received her M.F.A. at the Maryland Institute College of Art and is an  associate professor and co-coordinator of fine arts at York College of the City  University of New York. Her paintings, drawings and mixed-media works have been  shown in nine solo exhibitions and more than 40 group and juried exhibitions  across the United States. \u201cAs an African-American woman of mixed heritage,\u201d  Buxenbaum said, \u201cI approach my work as an opportunity to position women of  color in the Western art canon where we have been conspicuously absent.\u201d She  noted that a recurring theme in her artistic portrayals of women is the search  for personal identity, exploring the conflict between \u201cthe internal self and  the self we project to the world. As I continue to paint these women, I find  deeper layers that tell more complex stories about who we are and who we  pretend to be.\u201d<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>Lauren Cotton <\/strong>holds an M.F.A. from the  Temple University Tyler School of Art and has presented her sculptures and  installations in eight solo exhibitions and 12 group exhibitions across the  eastern and central United States.<strong> <\/strong>Cotton\u2019s  artist statement observed that the place and architectural space for her  exhibitions contribute to defining her works, which use materials such as scrap  wood, vinyl, paints, woven textiles, photographs, masks and other materials to  explore the interactions of color, shape and pattern in three dimensions. \u201cWith  each new environment, my works\u2019 form, color and composition alter and expose a  structural framework of physiological and psychological possibilities,\u201d she  said.<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n  <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Elizabeth  Dexheimer<\/strong> pursued studies at Oberlin College in Ohio and the School of  Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design in New York, and now maintains a  painting studio in Washington, Connecticut. Her paintings and works on paper  have been shown widely throughout the eastern United States, and are held in  numerous private and corporate collections including the holdings of Frontier  Communications, J. W. Marriott, Ritz Carlton and United People\u2019s Bank. Her  artist statement described the inspiration she draws from \u201cthe illusory and  transcendent qualities of light and atmosphere\u201d and from the intangible  qualities of the ethereal that convey \u201cthe feeling of limitlessness and forever  in the far view.\u201d The frequent use of water imagery in her works explores \u201cthe  ambiguity of reflections and the contrast between flow and stasis.\u201d Her works  range from the limited palette of a few colors in many of her paintings to the  bold and deep saturation of colors typical of her monotype prints.<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mindi  Englart <\/strong>received her master\u2019s degree from Wesleyan University and teaching  certification from Yale University, and has taught creative writing at  Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet School in New Haven for more than 15  years. She was the founding editor of the literary magazine Etcetera and is the  author of 12 nonfiction books for children as well as numerous poems, short  stories and academic publications. Public presentations of her literary work  have included a staged reading of the play, \u201cThe Lucretia Society,\u201d which she  coauthored as an exploration of sexual violence against women. Her book art has  been featured in shows at the Grove, the Haas Family Arts Library and the Tiny  Gallery at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven.<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Camille  Eskell <\/strong>received her M.F.A. from Queens College at CUNY and maintains a  studio in the greater New York area. She has earned critical acclaim for her diverse  body of work \u2014 including paintings, drawings, photo-based imagery and  mixed-media sculptures \u2014 that has been shown widely in solo and group  exhibitions across the United States and in Wales, Mexico and South America.  Her pieces are held in public and private collections including the Chrysler Museum  of Art, MOMA\/Wales, the Housatonic Museum of Art, the Islip Art Museum and the  Westport Permanent Collection. \u201cAs the third girl in a turbulent Iraqi Jewish  family from Bombay, I felt compelled to explore the psychological legacy that  shaped my perceptions, indentity and motivations,\u201d her artist statement said.  \u201cMy work examines these cultural and family dynamics, with themes of  vulnerability, rebirth, gender relationships and social convention.\u201d<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n  <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tracy  Walter Ferry <\/strong>worked for 10 years as a registered nurse at hospitals and  corporate medical departments in New York, New Jersey and the Caribbean before  embarking on a second career as an artist and earning her M.F.A. from the  Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. Ferry\u2019s eclectic use of materials  to create her sculptures ranges the gamut from scrap metal and nails, plastic  soldiers and baby bottle nipples to fabrics, photos, videos and MRI and X-ray  imagery. \u201cAs a registered nurse, I have seen what is hidden inside our bodies,  which has enabled me to create these abstracted portraits,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the  world of science, a gene can be taken from one organism and implanted in  another, completely changing the original structure. In my work, I explore all  of the organisms that result when you haphazardly combine these genes.\u201d<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lori  Glavin <\/strong>earned her B.F.A. from the Syracuse University School of Visual and  Performing Arts and worked for more than a decade as a graphic designer and art  director for numerous corporations including Conde Nast Publications, McCall\u2019s  magazine and her own design firm in New York. For the past 20 years, she has  shifted her artistic focus to creative work in painting, printmaking and  collage, exhibiting widely across the northeastern and southwestern United States.  An artist member of the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, she co-founded the  Wilson Avenue Loft Artists community of studios in Norwalk in 2007. \u201cMy work is  inspired by the visual clatter of the mundane places I know best, the domestic  environment or the tilted landscape of my weekend garden,\u201d her artist statement  said. \u201cMy paintings are spontaneous and intuitive; I work without a plan and  embrace the happy accident. With collage-like scraps of form and color, I  retell my story with embellishments and edits.\u201d<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Deborah  Hesse <\/strong>holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from Smith College and a master\u2019s degree in  painting and printmaking from the University of New Mexico, where she also  served as a fellow at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography. Recent  recognitions for her installation art works have included award of an  International Artist-in-Residence position in Busan, South Korea, as well as  artist grants in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont. Hesse\u2019s installations  combine organic and artificial materials and forms with cast and painted  shadows, creating parallel environments of hybrid construction and ephemeral  nature that seek to inspire exploration of the material and the ethereal.<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n  <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nalini  Jones, <\/strong>a Rhode Island native and daughter of an immigrant mother from  India, earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from Amherst College and an M.F.A. from  Columbia University before making her literary debut as author of the short  story collection, \u201cWhat You Call Winter,\u201d published in 2007. Her fiction work  also has appeared in One Story, Elle India, the Ontario Review and the Creative  Nonfiction Living Issue, and her essays have been published in Freud\u2019s Blind  Spot and AIDS Sutra. A writing instructor at the 92nd Street YMCA in  New York and in the graduate writing program at Fairfield University, Jones  currently is at work on a novel and has worked for several years in music  production at festivals and concert series. In her author statement for \u201cWhat  You Call Winter,\u201d a collection of stories about families in a fictional  Catholic neighborhood in the suburbs of Mumbai, she remarked that she has a  strong interest in the impact of migration and distance and how it affects  families, \u201cwhether people are flung across the globe or living under the same  roof. When I began to explore these questions in fiction, I realized that the  characters were all connected to a place, partly remembered, partly imagined,  partly mythical.\u201d<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Monica  Ong <\/strong>earned an M.F.A. in digital media at the Rhode Island School of Design  and currently is the user experience designer for the Yale Digital Humanities  Lab. Ong was named a Kundiman Poetry Fellow, awarded as part of a program  dedicated to the creation and cultivation of Asian American literature. For  more than a decade, Ong has exhibited her eclectic mixed-media works combining  digital graphics, photo and X-ray images, printed poetry text and other imagery  at exhibitions in the United States and abroad. Her poetry has been published  in literary journals and her debut collection released in 2015, \u201cSilent  Anatomies,\u201d was chosen by poet Joy Harjo as winner of the Kore Press First Book  Award. \u201cThis unique poetry collection is a kind of graphic poetry book. Poetry  unfurls within, outside and through images that establish stark bridges between  ancestor and descendant time and presence,\u201d Harjo wrote.<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Joan  Seliger Sidney <\/strong>is a Brooklyn native who earned a master\u2019s degree in  teaching from Harvard University, an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College,  and a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. She has published three poetry  collections and numerous children\u2019s books, and her works have been featured in  seven anthologies as well as several periodicals. She also is a Writer-in-Residence  at the UConn Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. In  biographical notes on her website, she observed, \u201cAs a second-generation  Holocaust survivor, it\u2019s important to bear witness to all that was lost,\u201d a  recurring theme in her writings. She noted that her continuing challenge \u201cto  make peace and live well with chronic-progressive multiple sclerosis\u201d and her  love of family also have shaped the themes of her poetry and her picture books  for children.<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n  <\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sarah  Tortora <\/strong>received her bachelor\u2019s degree in studio art at Southern  Connecticut State University and her M.F.A. in interdisciplinary fine art from  the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Skowhegan School  of Painting and Sculpture. She has served as an adjunct professor of art at  Southern and currently is a visiting assistant professor in sculpture at  Indiana University. Her installations feature use of a wide range of materials to  construct works with bold designs and strong basic colors. Tortora has participated  in six solo exhibitions in New England, New York and Tennessee, and more than  20 group exhibitions across the United States. Recent honors have included her  selection for the Alice Cole 1942 Fellowship in Studio Art at Wellesley College  and an Artist in Residence position at the Webb School of Knoxville. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<p>&#013;\n    <\/ul>\n<p>For more information, contact the Department of Art at (203)  837-8403 or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<p><em>Western  Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality  academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an  enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique  cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an  affordable public university with the characteristics of New England\u2019s best  small private universities.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#013;<\/p>\n<div id=\"facebookShare\"><!-- #include virtual=\"\/include\/facebookshare.inc\" --><\/div>\n<p>&#013;\n        <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#013; &#013; &#013; &#013; DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 Twelve women in the visual and literary arts who completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center within the past five years will exhibit their works in the multi-media show, \u201cWomen\u2019s Work,\u201d to be &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1124","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/news-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}