The newly renovated Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery is hosting its first ever “Alumni Show,” in celebration of the gallery’s reopening and the thirtieth anniversary of the Center for the Arts.
The exhibition includes work from twenty-seven graduates of Wesleyan University.
Their pieces, ranging from painting and photography to sculpture and film, are nearly all of an abstract or experimental quality.
Most striking is “Triangle” by Karen Stack ’88, a series of twenty-four photographs documenting the growth of pubic hair on a woman’s vagina. Next to this display is a tiny flipbook of hair growing on a man’s head.
These pieces are part of Stack’s project, “Hair Stories,” which she began after losing her hair through chemotherapy.
“I focused on hair because I couldn’t wait for it to come back,” she explains, adding, “I think of the project as post-cancer, anti-cancer, the triumph of the natural order, and back to health.”
Two remarkable photographs by Dana Hoey ’89 are also displayed in the exhibition. One, entitled “Rebirthing,” shows a woman lying in a meadow, presumably giving birth, while five smiling women surround her. In the other, “Pregnant Smoker,” a woman with a significantly protruding belly lies on her back on the ground while holding a half-smoked cigarette.
“These photographs come from a series called ‘Moon Bitches,’ which reflects a fascination with corrupted idealism,” Hoey explained.
Three photographs by James Longley ’94 portray city life in Iraq. In “High Noon, Baghdad,” an Iraqi man walks down a sidewalk in a run-down urban area. “Diarrhea Clinic, Basra,” shows two parents and their child waiting in a long line in front of a small white building. “Backward Glance, Baghdad,” is of a teenage boy looking over his shoulder at the camera while walking through an alley.
These photographs, taken in 2002, are Longley’s response to the current political struggles between Iraq and the United States.
“There is a certain current of shame underlying the invasion and occupation of a country about which we know nothing,” says Longley. “I want to inspire the audience to care about and understand people seemingly disconnected from themselves.”
A short documentary by Jem Cohen ’84 also touches upon Iraq-United States conflicts. His six and a half minute film, entitled “Little Flags,” documents the “victory parade” in lower Manhattan in 1992.
“The background: a president named Bush, Saddam Hussein, oil interests, a domestic downturn, a television war, an explosion of flags,” Cohen said. “I’m thinking of re-releasing the film without a date in the credits. It could easily be footage of an event from last year or next month or next year.”
The paintings displayed in the exhibition are also exceptional.
“Portrait #51 (Black, Blue, Red, Yellow, and White Evanders)” by Brenda Zlamany ’81 consists of five sets of two panels, each set of a different color. One panel is painted entirely in one color, and its adjacent panel is a portrait of the boxer Evander Holyfield in front of that color.
Zlamany chose to paint Evander because of her sense of the connection between boxing and painting.
“Painting, like boxing, is raw, direct, and unpredictable,” she explains, “It is also a one-on-one struggle that may seem to last an eternity. Blow after blow, stroke after stroke, then, unexpectedly it’s over.”
Several sculpture pieces are also included in the exhibition.
The small abstract sculpture by Vincent Fecteau ’92 is made of such disparate materials as acrylic paint, cord, wood, burlap, and paper.
According to Fecteau, this piece is an example of his “struggle to find that place where the conceptual, personal, and abstract resonate.”
“The Crest of Six Winds,” by Desiree Alvarez ’85 is a beautiful set of sheer white sheets hanging from the ceiling on which are painted trees, birds, and dragons.
“I often choose to work with fabric because it provides an underlying structure in which to weave the weird fibers of invented worlds,” Alvarez said.
The most monumental piece of the exhibition is “The Ecstasy of the Laucoon Medusa Fall of St. Sebastian Schreeman” by Keith Sklar ’80. This piece takes up an entire wall and is a combination of painted shapes and designs and tacked-on pieces of molded plastic. The exact meaning of these images is left unexplained.
Sklar tributes his art career to John Paoletti, professor of art history.
“He took this hippie-transitioning-into-punk-generation kid and demanded gravity, nurtured focus, and inspired a life of continual learning.”
Leave a Reply