Helen S. Smith Gallery

Slash and Burn

January 7th - February 7th, 2019 Artist Panel Discussion and Closing Reception: Thursday, February 7th, noon - 1pm

Slash & Burn is a collaborative exhibition that takes inspiration from slash-and-burn agricultural practices which regenerate the soil through acts of devastation.  The artists in Slash & Burn take the concept of renewal through destruction, harnessing the power of flame and blade as creative acts. In destruction and decay lay the seeds of hope.

Artists: Joy Hagen, Stephanie Hargrave, Deborah Kapoor, Crista Matteson, Naoko Morisawa, Kevin Piepel, June Sekiguchi, Joseph Steininger, and Suze Woolf demonstrate a wide range of responses to the exhibition's theme, giving birth to new creations by harnessing the power of flame and blade.   

^{Deborah Kapoor | Sisters, Not Twins | Mixed media installation | 82 x 144 x 32 inches | 2018}

Evanescence: Neil Berkowitz, Thelma Harris and Lisa Parsons

February 14th – March 14th, 2019 Artist Panel Discussion and Closing Reception: Thursday, March 14th, noon - 1pm

Evanescence. n. The event of fading and gradually vanishing from sight.

Neil Berkowitz, Thelma Harris and Lisa Parsons respond to the idea of place uniquely from an ephemeral and abstracted sense of being in layered digital photography, to reflections on time and personal history through dimensional Polaroid wall and pedestal installations, to preservation of our natural world in the documentation of landscape.  Together, these artists play off of each other’s profound conception of place and time through the lens and experimentation of photography, making the fleeting nature of time tangible.