{"id":3015,"date":"2023-09-05T20:41:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T20:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/?p=3015"},"modified":"2023-09-06T14:18:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T14:18:02","slug":"exquisite-variants-maggie-nowinski-and-alicia-renadette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=3015","title":{"rendered":"Exquisite Variants: Maggie Nowinski and Alicia Renadette"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>by D. Dominick Lombardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Exquisite Variants: Maggie Nowinski and Alicia Renadette<\/em>, the current exhibition at Overlap gallery in Newport, RI, features intricate collaged drawings, mixed media sculptures and paintings. Installed in a variety of configurations and formats, everything here suggests the peripheral representations one stores as secondary memory, the kind of imagery that might be spawned by subconscious prompts throughout the five senses. Within all this, there appears to be an overwhelming focus on the tactile quality of this mentally stored minutiae, details that keep all the visual effects fluid and stimulating without being too definitive or easily recognizable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"764\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-1.-Somaflora-Specimen_Immunity-II-764x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Maggie Nowinski, Somaflora Specimen \u2013 Friend or Foe I, 2023, Pen and ink and gouache on heavyweight Stonehenge paper, 28 x 42 inches\" class=\"wp-image-3016\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-1.-Somaflora-Specimen_Immunity-II-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-1.-Somaflora-Specimen_Immunity-II-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-1.-Somaflora-Specimen_Immunity-II-768x1030.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-1.-Somaflora-Specimen_Immunity-II.jpg 810w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><figcaption><strong>Maggie Nowinski<\/strong>, <em>Somaflora Specimen \u2013 Friend or Foe I<\/em>, 2023, Pen and ink and gouache on heavyweight Stonehenge paper, 28 x 42 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This series of works began during COVID when studio time for visual artists was unencumbered by social gatherings, work, or just plain \u201cthings to do.\u201d Spanning over two years of detailed combinations of divergent imagery, materials and intentions, the approach of Nowinski and Renadette is very much like the 1925 Surrealist parlor game, <em>Exquisite Corpse,<\/em> where artists added strange, unrelated drawings on the same piece of paper, and always in sequential order. In this instance, with <em>Exquisite Variants<\/em>, there is more of a back and forth between the two artists who find common ground in an aesthetic that speaks of the inner-worldly. Overall, the imagery is tinged with Surrealist undertones that combine biomorphic forms, indications of technology, manufacturing debris and unlikely transitions all enhanced by a very wild and wily palette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"823\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-2.-Communion1-823x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Alicia Renadette, Communion, 2022-2023, Easter Bunny suit, Grandmother\u2019s tablecloth, artificial flowers, craft felt, Easter grass, ribbon, fabric, embroidery floss, pipe cleaners, bubble wands, wire, 48 x 48 x 28 inches\" class=\"wp-image-3017\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-2.-Communion1-823x1024.jpg 823w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-2.-Communion1-241x300.jpg 241w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-2.-Communion1-768x956.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-2.-Communion1.jpg 964w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption><strong>Alicia Renadette<\/strong>, <em>Communion<\/em>, 2022-2023, Easter Bunny suit, Grandmother\u2019s tablecloth, artificial flowers, craft felt, Easter grass, ribbon, fabric, embroidery floss, pipe cleaners, bubble wands, wire, 48 x 48 x 28 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What I find most intriguing about this exhibition is the way the exhibition ebbs and flows visually and viscerally through the use of certain repetitive details found in both the two and three dimensional objects. <em>Exquisite Realm: Scanning the Substrata<\/em> (2023) covers the largest wall of the gallery, driven by seemingly endless, individual, collaged ink drawings and mixed media sculptures that set in motion an evolving, multiplying, expanding organism. A potent structure of energetic expression built upon meditative mark-making and inward searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-3.-ExquisiteRealmDetail02-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Maggie Nowinski &amp; Alicia Renadette, Exquisite Realm: Scanning the Substrata (detail), 2023, Mixed media installation\" class=\"wp-image-3018\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-3.-ExquisiteRealmDetail02-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-3.-ExquisiteRealmDetail02-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-3.-ExquisiteRealmDetail02-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Image-3.-ExquisiteRealmDetail02.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption><strong>Maggie Nowinski &amp; Alicia Renadette<\/strong>, <em>Exquisite Realm: Scanning the Substrata<\/em> (detail), 2023, Mixed media installation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the worst times of the COVID pandemic, there was an overall fog of life, of not knowing how bad it would get, if you were its next victim, or if there would ever be light at the end of the tunnel. So it is not so surprising that anxiety levels would increase throughout the globe under such overwhelming stress. For whatever reason, artists have an innate ability to employ that negative energy into their work by channeling the flow of lines, shapes and colors from the subconscious, enabling them to represent the illusive space between survival and dread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Exquisite Variants: Maggie Nowinski and Alicia Renadette <\/strong>ends September 10th. For more information visit the gallery\u2019s website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.overlapnewport.com\/\">https:\/\/www.overlapnewport.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by D. Dominick Lombardi Exquisite Variants: Maggie Nowinski and Alicia Renadette, the current exhibition at Overlap gallery in Newport, RI, features intricate collaged drawings, mixed media sculptures and paintings. Installed in a variety of configurations and formats, everything here suggests the peripheral representations one stores as secondary memory, the kind of imagery that might be &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=3015\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Exquisite Variants: Maggie Nowinski and Alicia Renadette&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3015"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3025,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions\/3025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}