Culture
Athens Area Artists Exhibit Work at OU Gallery
By: Heather Burnett
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Seven Athens-area artists are currently displaying their work at the Connections 2 art exhibit at the OU Multicultural Center Art Gallery.
The show includes fiber pieces, photography, pressed flower “paintings,” paper collage, pine needle coiled baskets and cornhusk dolls.
This is the second year the Multicultural Center has hosted this event curated by Simona Aizicovici, an Athens resident for more than 20 years.
Connections 2 takes its name from the many connections involved: friendship between artists, the connection artists have with their materials while they create and the connections artists hope to make with the viewer through their artwork.
The connecting of cultures such as Romanian, Appalachian, Mid-Western, Russian, and Native American is also important as the artists are from these areas.
Lanna Galloway had the experience of blurred vision on trips to the eye doctor and her contemplative fiber piece shows that the gift of sight should never be taken for granted.
Lynda Berman (work shown at right) layers handmade papers to compose collages that spotlight a single botanical specimen. Each is created to invite close inspection of nature’s order and beauty.
Olga Molchanova takes photographs everyday to discover the unexpected things in everyday life.
Aizicovici uses pressed flowers and leaves as nature’s paints. She gives nature another life as she depicts still life, animals, people and seasonal landscapes.
Kari Gunter-Seymour has had fun “shooting from the hip” through her iPhone to create an eclectic collection of edgy, experimental images.
Two new artists are featured this year, Anna Marie Allan and Waldena Hendrix.
Allan works in a traditional medium creating cornhusk dolls with all natural materials. She creates handcrafted accessories based on old-time customs to give each figure a distinct personality.
Hendrix makes coiled baskets from Longleaf Pine needles in the time-honored Native American tradition of beauty and utility but also creates more personal contemporary baskets with asymmetry, bright colors and unexpected patterns.
Although most of the artwork has been created in the past year, several pieces are older favorites of the artists. New or old, each artist prides herself in the high level of craftsmanship evident in her work.
The exhibit runs through Dec. 7 and is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A meet-the-artists reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28.
This free and open to the public event is sponsored by the Ohio University Multicultural Center and Women’s Center.
For more information, contact Simona Aizicovici, artist and owner of Handmade by Simona, at 740-591-5436 or Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, assistant director of multicultural programs at 740-597-2111.
Story courtesy of Compass at Ohio University.