In General – Page 9 – dArt International Magazine

March 9, 2022March 18, 2022

Sherri Hay’s Let’s Not Get Back to Normal

by Steve Rockwell

Never more stable than a rainbow, 2022, sheer curtain, rope, and curtain rod, variable dimensions — *Never more stable than a rainbow*, 2022, sheer curtain, rope, and curtain rod, variable dimensions

Entering her exhibition at Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto, Sherri Hay confronts us with a simple request: “Let’s not go back to normal.” I admit that the plea triggered an instant compulsion in me, not unlike the response to a host whose house you’ve entered, wishing you to take your shoes off. What did the artist mean by normal, and what is it that we must continue to do? As a gumshoe, I would have to tread where the evidence led me.

February 26, 2022March 18, 2022

The Tao of Mary Hrbacek’s Trees

by Thalia Vrachopoulos

Mary Hrbacek, Hanging Suspended, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 40X44" — Mary Hrbacek, Hanging Suspended, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 40X44″

In her October exhibition at 107 West in New York City, Mary Hrbacek displays her series World Trees, 2015. Consisting of 24 acrylic on linen paintings, the series represents Hrbacek’s engagement and commitment to world sustainability. In a lyrical, evocative manner she accentuates the import of trees’ life-giving properties that allow humans to live and breathe. In this she recognizes that an individual working with the community can make for a real democracy. Hrbacek also realizes that there is a dark side to life and nature, as seen in her work Silver Dark Monarch, 2015 (acrylic on linen, 8×10″) that looks ominous when compared to some of her other tree paintings. Dark Monarch with its pink, black, green and silver tones recalls the withering effects of such an entity’s sovereignty. Hrbacek’s motifs are inspired by trees she came across in her travels to such places as Vermont, Italy, China, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Ireland, France and other places.

February 25, 2022March 18, 2022

Maelee Lee: Genesis

Verse 27: So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them

by Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos

Maelee Lee, Genesis, 2016, variable installation, multi channel video 2min. each

Several years ago, for her new series of works, the artist Melee Lee began examining the issue of existence; being, becoming, having become – the world’s, other people’s, her own. This research led her to look at human development in general and more specifically into its issues. Consequently, this series of works involve history, humanity, while looking at diverse ethnic groups as well as the never-ending cycle of existence – life and death, as well as the establishment and demolition of nations.

February 22, 2022March 14, 2022

Lie-yi Shen: Art into Life

by Thalia Vrachopoulos

Lie-yi Shen, Moisture, 2009, green granite, 300 x 140 x 60 cm — Lie-yi Shen, *Moisture*, 2009, green granite, 300 x 140 x 60 cm

Lie-yi Shen works on his sculptural series for long periods of time, conceptualizing and finessing them while developing artworks in continuity. Many of his projects, as seen in Seesaw, (2012-21), Water Series (2001-21), Sky Series, (2012-19), Nest Series, (2004-21), can be discussed in terms of the Minimalist spirit in that they are repeated but gradually varied geometric artworks that use industrial materials. But Shen’s sculpture is different in the sense that he sometimes makes use of organic objects within them, starting a new work by adding various surprising components to his original piece. Because of this continued relationship and growth over time, in his work we can conclude that Shen has arrived at the mature stage of his career.

February 3, 2022March 14, 2022

Nothing Left of Time: An Installation of Works by Matthew Garrison

by D. Dominick Lombardi

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. – Henry David Thoreau

Cloud Wall (installation view) — *Cloud Wall (*installation view)

Controlling nature, or one’s personal environment, has been an age’s old endeavor. I am reminded of the ancient city of Petra in Southwest Jordan, which was carved directly into the reddish sandstone, as one example of something of a massive and monumental compromise in that struggle between ‘progress’ and the destruction of the environment.