DIALOGUES
April 26–May 21, 2022
Breaking Through III, oil on canvas with mixed media collage, 30 x 30 inches, 2018
Reception: Thursday, April 28, 5-8pm
FIRST STREET GALLERY is pleased to present Dialogues, an exhibition of recent oil and mixed media paintings and collage by New York artist Suzi Evalenko. This is the artist’s eighth solo exhibition at First Street.
Returning to the genre of still life (in the main) in her new show, Evalenko also returns to a decades-long engagement with themes that tap into the artist’s personal history. The show’s title refers to two dialogues that are going on simultaneously in these works.
The first conversation, between the past and the present, is carried by two objects: a long Turcomen wrapping band of the kind used by nomads to secure tent poles and other gear; and a glazed two-handled earthenware lamp with its ‘hands’ planted on its graceful curves – feminine, yet resolute. Treasured possessions that the artist has lived with since her earliest childhood memories, these tokens of family and home remain sources of inspiration and invention, painted often, since her first oil of the lamp in 1976 (on view).
The second dialogue continues Evalenko’s exploration of the tension and interplay of figurative content and abstracted imagery: cut from unrelated oils and other media, breaking through the painted still life or hovering on its own planes; flat elements juxtaposing volumetric depiction; mirrored content that is simultaneously solid background and reflected foreground, defying easy apprehension of the enclosed space. Rich color and movement, hallmarks of Evalenko’s work, abound.
See more of Evalenko’s work here and on Artsy.net.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am–6pm
Special Exhibition Hours: Sunday, May 15, 1–5pm
Artist also present in the Gallery on Saturday, April 30, May 7 and May 21, 2–5pm
