SUBMERGED

Recent works by Kathleen House, Melodee Martin Ramirez, Ginger Strand, Diane Walker-Gladney, Diana Warrick and Martha Watson

Opening Reception:

Sunday, January 19, 2003- 5-7 PM

This exhibition of new work by area artist, Kathleen House, Melodee Martin Ramirez, Ginger Strand, Diane Walker-Gladney, Diana Warrick and Martha Watson features works that explore their individual interpretations of SUBMERGED.

These artists are part of the Affinity Group Project initiated by The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art. The Contemporary, formerly known as the Dallas Visual Art Center, has been a support system for metroplex artists since 1981. The Affinity Group Project program was initiated in 1999 at ‘DVAC’ as a support structure to connect groups of artists in a collaborative way to discuss work and create exhibition opportunities.

This group first met in January 2001 to explore challenges facing the emerging artist. At the end of their six-month program, they decided they wanted to continue to meet and to create an exhibition based on their collaborative ideas. They were selected by Greg Metz, Director of the University of Texas at Dallas’ Main Gallery, for an exhibition which would explore the concept submerged, a word which grew out of the initial discussions about the role of the emerging artist.

The Contemporary’s Director Joan Davidow applauds the artists’ initiative for developing a way to show their work, stating "I am proud of the avenue the Affinities Group format has given these artist to expand their careers." The artists in this exhibition thank to UTD Gallery Coordinator Greg Metz for offering his expertise and use of the gallery to make this collaboration a reality.

THE EXHIBITION

Kathleen House’s brilliantly colored abstract monotypes express her ideas of self-submergence. Her installation includes her personal letters, chairs, and binoculars for the viewers. Her statement reads:

Configuring the abstract provides
conveyance for self-submergence.
Each piece succeeds to the next:
consequently, observers experience
the succession of submergence.
Consider and conclude.

Melodee Martin Ramirez’s large paintings are derived from the Pompeiian wall frescos of the Villa of the Mysteries, 50 B.C.E., four of the Scenes of a Dionysiac Mystery Cult. The paintings are oil on canvas panels displayed on a wall in a manner which simulates a continuous wall fresco at the end of one of the rooms in the Villa. The canvases are painted with the same border and the background as the original frescoes, but the figures are local contemporary art curators, collectors, and the artist painted in positions similar to the figures in the Villa of the Mysteries frescoes. She states:

Just as the ancient Pompeiian women willingly submitted to mysterious and arduous rites to hopefully achieve their goal of membership into the Dionysiac group, the contemporary artist finds herself on a strange and solemn path to an uncertain goal.

Ginger Strand’s installation pieces deals with the exploration of materials of the earth, ocean, and ether. The simplicity and beauty of materials are revealed in her monolithic salt block sculpture with dripping water, her salt crystal images on tiles, her small sand garden and her captured salt sculptures in small vessels. Her statement says, in part:

Submerged: sunken, hidden, mysterious, wondrous, phantom, unknowable. Exploration of things beneath the surface- the truth is not always what it seems, nor is it one-sided. Simplicity and beauty of materials holds the final IS and IS NOT. Earth, Ocean, and Ether all connected by basic structures and patterns, recognizable to the human mind but never fully grasped.

Diane Walker-Gladney’s uses photo-imagery and sculptural mixed media in her work. Her statement reads:

Submerged: immersed in one’s own pool of information. Moving toward acceptance, carefully analyzing each piece, considering its impact and understanding its place in the whole.

Diana Warrick’s paintings of dream imagery deal with submerging oneself into the psyche, and have titles such as Beyond, Passages, and Transition. Her statement is a poem:

The dream, that place which knows not
rules of reality. If promises retreat or rest,
poses questions, offers strange plots,
revives remembrances past,
makes memory of things to come.
Time has no meaning in dreams. Akin to sirens,
the dream calls to a world of its own making.

Martha Watson’s large mixed media linocuts on paper (72" x 36") are presented in a grid pattern using black and white colors that symbolize emotions. Her mixed media grid drawings are devices she uses to explore and connect with her personal experiences. Her statement reads:

Submerging into myself to explore and connect. I use color to symbolically represent the emotions that connect us to the rainbow colors of life.