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"Dangerous
Women Two" Features Works by 69 Female Artists
Inspired by 20th Century Women at Gallery Sept. 4-Oct. 6
8/3/07
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What
do you get when you combine 69 of the region's most outstanding
women artists with 69 women activists, adventurers and artists from
the last century? You get a combustible mixture of art, history,
and life -- "Dangerous Women Two" -- one of the
season's most unique installations. The multiple-media exhibition
debuts in The Gallery at Mercer in September, running from Tuesday,
Sept. 4 through Saturday, Oct. 6. An opening reception will be held
Saturday, Sept. 8, 2 to 5 p.m. The Gallery is under the direction
of curator Tricia Fagan and is located on the second floor of the
Communications Building on Mercer's West
Windsor campus at 1200 Old Trenton Road.
Fagan invited
regional artists to each select one of the historic "dangerous
woman" as the inspiration for an original work of art that
will be on display in this show. These dangerous women were all
artists, activists or visionaries from this same geographic region
who were active during the period between the two World Wars. Researched
by Fagan, they represent a broad spectrum of women who took artistic
and personal risks, and challenged the roles of womanhood, art,
and society.
The result is
70 dramatic works in oils, watercolors, mixed-media collages, stone,
metal, photography, prints, jewelry, and more. The artists' works
will be displayed beside a text panel featuring a short biography
of the historic figure they selected. Artist statements exploring
these relationships will be available in The Gallery for the duration
of the exhibit. A catalog of the exhibit is being compiled. The
show is a collaboration between MCCC and Trenton Avant-Garde, a
nonprofit Trenton-based arts organization. It has received generous
support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
Fagan became interested in the project more than a decade ago as
she read about women from this region who had been making ground-breaking
contributions as visual artists, photographers, fashion designers,
writers, performers, and activists in the 1920s and 1930s. "As
I read about more and more of these women, I kept asking myself,
'Why haven't I heard more about them before?' These were astounding,
risk-taking, amazingly modern women who were bold - often fearless
- in the way they approached their lives," she said.
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This
mixed-media piece by Arlene Milgram
is inspired by the work of abstract expressionist
painter Lee Krasner.
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This
fiber art sculpture by Lisa Fuellemann
is inspired by the life of writer Regina Jones Woody.
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This
matching set by jewelry designer
Martha Runyon is inspired by the exquisitely
complex jewelry of Miriam Haskell.
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Paying
tribute to their pioneering efforts became Fagan's passion, an idea that
was embraced by local artists in the first "Dangerous Women"
show, which featured 42 artists in 1996-97 at Joe's Mill Hill Saloon and
the Ellarslie Museum in Trenton. "I thought that was it, but the
show wouldn't go away," Fagan says.
In
the years since the first show, Fagan continued to compile mini-biographies
of fascinating women. Among the more than 100 women who made Fagan's tri-state
list are writer and poet Dorothy Parker, Precisionist painter Elsie Driggs,
printmaker Minna Citron, and sculptor Dorothea Schwartz-Greenbaum. Two
New Yorkers on the Dangerous Women list, artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois
and photographer Helen Levitt, are still living.
An
educational guide will be available for teachers and parents. Gallery
talks and other special events associated with this exhibit will be announced.
The Gallery is funded, in part, through a grant from the Mercer County
Cultural & Heritage Commission through funding from the NJ State Council
on the Arts/Department of State.
A
list of the artists and their selected historical subjects is available
on the Gallery website.
Expanded gallery hours for this show are Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 a.m.
to 3 p.m.; and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 7 to
9 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday (except for opening reception),
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For
additional information, visit:
The
Gallery at Mercer
Dangerous
Women Two
Directions
to MCCC
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