Susan Erony: Towers and Other Thoughts at Trident Gallery

Susan Erony: Towers and Other Thoughts at Trident Gallery

Presented by Trident Gallery at Trident Gallery

Trident Gallery is pleased to present Towers and Other Thoughts, an exhibition of mixed media paintings by Susan Erony having motifs of towers and human hands. Towers and Other Thoughts is the second solo exhibition of Erony’s paintings at Trident Gallery and will be on view October 29 – November 27, 2016. Gallery hours are Saturday 10–7; Friday, Sunday, and Monday 10–5; Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 12–5, and by appointment. The Gallery will be closed Wednesday and Thursday, November 23­­–24, for Thanksgiving, and hours will be 12-7 on Friday, November 25th.

The gallery will host an Opening Reception for the artist on Saturday, October 29, 5-7pm. The following weekend, on Sunday, November 6, at 4pm, the gallery will host a Conversation with Susan Erony about her artistic process and recent work. On Saturday, November 19, at 7pm, the Trident Live Art Series will present Towers and Other Thoughts in Performance, an exploration through performance of ideas and materials informing the exhibition. Spoken text, music, visual art, and dance will be produced by Gallery Director Matthew Swift and Trident Live Art Series Director Sarah Slifer Swift in collaboration with artist Susan Erony. The Gallery will close early at 5pm to prepare for the performance.

Susan Erony’s art is always engaged with history, is often politically charged, and frequently responds and refers to genocide. Consider a pair of examples from the coming exhibition. Erony’s title Wishing I Were Bruegel refers the viewer to two well-known paintings of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569).  While paying homage to the exquisite paintings of the Renaissance master, Erony’s painting embodies both the continuity and the change of meaning of the myth over the millennia. Erony’s The Great Wall of China takes its title from a short work of prose by the Czech-born, German-speaking writer Franz Kafka (1883–1924), in which a narrator from the south of China reflects on the remoteness of the Great Wall in the north and the northern barbarians it excludes. The narrator considers the nature and motivations of the forces behind the generations-long construction project, and entertains a rumor that the Wall’s true purpose is a sturdier foundation for a new Tower of Babel. In this way, Erony links the contemporary political implications of Towers and Walls to a story from Genesis via the translated text of a repressed, Modernist, ambivalently Jewish writer’s absurdist parable of China.

This broad range of reference to political history and art history within steadfast engagement with ethical questions is typical of Erony’s art of studied, intentional mixed media constructions. The motifs of towers and hands visually unify the paintings in Towers and Other Thoughts; and the consistency, over the last 25 years, of Erony’s regular incorporation of texts (often by Kafka, often handwritten), of her choices of unusual media (burned paper, lead, photographs, and acrylic medium), and of the painstaking assiduousness of her practice provide a clear perspective from which to understand and appreciate the new paintings.

Susan Erony was born in 1949 in Boston and has resided in Gloucester since 1995. She attended Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art, Lesley University, and the University for Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, Holland. She has consulted to organizations on issues of art and society, taught and lectured on both art history and art practice, and organized exhibitions.  She is currently Visual Artist in Residence for the Gloucester Writers Center. Her art is in prestigious US and European collections and has been shown across North America, and in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.

Trident Gallery shows beautiful and intelligent contemporary art in all mediums, emphasizing the work of artists continuing Gloucester’s rich legacy as a center for new American Art. Gallery Director Dr. Matthew Swift curates and produces the exhibitions, drawing on over twenty years of multi-disciplinary scholarship, teaching, and creative exploration.

The Trident Live Art Series presents performances by seasoned professionals showing experimental and collaborative work in the intimate salon setting of the gallery. Live Art Series Director Sarah Slifer Swift curates and produces the performances, drawing on over twenty years of experience in the United States and abroad as a dance artist, choreographer, and producer.

For further information, visit TridentGallery.com or call the gallery at 978-491-7785.

Dates & Times

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Location Info

Trident Gallery

189 Main St, Gloucester, MA 01930

Parking Info

Street parking; see http://trident.gallery/contact/ for details.