| Focus
Exhibits Open at GRACE |
By Leah M. Kosin
Special to the Observer |
| Artists Anna Fine Foer and Sonya A. Lawyer received a handful
of compliments during an artist reception at the Greater Reston
Arts Center Sunday night. Both artists are participating in
the first Focus Exhibition of 2008 at GRACE and answered community
questions about their work during the reception. |
| Foer is showcasing work from three of her series. These
include "Fractals," which looks at recent weather-related
events like Hurricane Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami,
"Magnetism," which explores concepts like attraction through
images with magnets, and "Torah Portion Collages," which examines
the Torah. Each piece is a collage that combines conceptual
art and imaginary landscapes with maps and text. |
| "I wouldn't have the patience, but they're fascinating to
look at," said Springfield resident DJ Gaskin. "It's hard
to describe what I like about them, but they're fascinating.
I love the detail, the color, the way she's pieced all these
pieces of maps. |
| "I mean, maps in themselves are artistic enough, but to
take all of the fragments, elements of maps and use them the
way she has is just unbelievable." |
| As a fibers and crafts student at the Philadelphia College
of Art, now University of the Arts, Foer said she became fascinated
by the relationship between maps and the land they represented.
"I was intrigued by looking at the map and looking at the
landscape," Foer said. "And in a collage it can be about more
than one thing at the same time." |
| Lawyer's exhibit, "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?),"
includes mixed-media quilts made from vintage portrait photographs
and hand-dyed fabrics. Lawyer said her display is the second
part of a series she created several years ago when she started
collecting vintage photo albums through online auctions, antique
stores and fairs. |
| "As I thought about the lives recorded in these albums,
I was never quite sure how to, and if I should, incorporate
them into my own artistic practice," Lawyer said. |
| In a quest to explore new materials in her art, Lawyer began
hand-dying fabric and soon after decided to combine them with
her photos. |
| In "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?)," Lawyer
works with photographs of men utilizing photo-transfer methods
and hand-dyed fabric. According to Lawyer, three of her pieces
feature photographs of her paternal and maternal grandfather,
as well as a few of her uncles. |
| "I'm hoping that these images will just resonate with people
and maybe inspire them to go find those images from their
history and remember them and give them the prominence that
they deserve," Lawyer said. |
| Lawyer said she plans to continue the series by focusing
on children and the Madonna and child imagery next. Her first
part of the series, "Searching for Beulah (limit of disturbance),"
concentrated on images of women, she said. |
| "You have to be an artist to really think about doing something
like this," said Reston resident Ellen Graves. "It's so creative.
It's just absolutely unreal. I mean, it's the kind of artwork
that you see and it just makes you feel good." |
| "I think both of these artists are working in ways that
we haven't shown before here at GRACE," said Joanne Bauer,
exhibitions director at GRACE. "I think we have two artists
who are really working out of what is most meaningful to them
and they're both working out of their own specific heritage,
which is also good. They found a way to say what they want
to say in the most concise, elegant way and it's just a great
example for all artists." |
| The Focus Exhibition of Foer's and Lawyer's work will be
on display through Feb. 16. Visit www.restonarts.org or call
703-471-9242. |
