Dreams of a Common Language: Elizabeth Duffy, Lu Heintz, and Anna McNeary In OVERLAP

Liz Maynard

Installation View: Left to Right Lu Heintz, Everything is Fiber: A New Lexicon, 2024 Graphite on paper Elizabeth Duffy Wearing / Ceremonial Costume for Gathering Rehill (1904-1972), 2023-2024, Unraveled worn braided rugs made into clothing, braided rug poncho with corn-on-the-cob holders, copper dandelion leaves, copper formed shoes, rug remnant; Anna McNeary, Common Set, 2024 Fabric, velcro, wooden rack Dimensions variable

The rhymes, homophones, and translations between the work of Elizabeth Duffy, Lu Heintz, and Anna McNeary are object manifestations of “Dreams of a Common Language.” The exhibition at Overlap Gallery in Newport, RI, offers up sweet and salty juxtapositions of textile, prints, sculptures, and installations of Providence-based artists. It takes its title from Adrienne Rich’s 1976 volume of poetry, which ruminates on the possibilities of life liberated from patriarchal constraints and the feminist community emerging from speech in common. Duffy, Heintz, and McNeary explore textile not just as a shared (and often gendered) medium but as a conceptual framework.

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Ophelia Arc: we’re just so glad you’re home at 81 Leonard Gallery

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Ophelia Arc

In her 2014 essay Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain, Leslie Jamison examines the literary phenomenon of women’s suffering being depicted in almost luxuriating detail, as much an object of fetishization by men as it is a subject of shame by women. Jamison recalls a boyfriend accusing her of being a “wound-dweller,” or fixating on her own afflictions to an unhealthy, self-centered degree, to which she initially reacts with umbrage. Ultimately, she reworks this pejorative into an argument that women’s tragedy, disease and self-harm should be viewed through an empathetic lens, that women should be inclined to give themselves the space to “dwell” on their wounds as a pathway to solidarity and recovery.

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A Tribute to Friendship at the Reinstitute

Photo Story
Installation view

Through their group show at Re Institute, Julia Kunin, Barbara Zucker, Meg Lipke, Catherine Hall, and Joanne Howard reflect on how a supportive community and friendship nourish the often solitary act of creating art. Their lives have intersected over many years, and their approach to art cross-pollinates on multiple levels.

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Jeanne Ciravolo – the resistance in making do

In Dialogue
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Residency at the Anderson Center, 2019, Red Wing, MN

In her mixed-media work, Jeanne Ciravolo integrates collage, print, and stitching, materializing the stories of her female relatives—their stories of loss and hope. The female figures often reference representation of women in art history, such as medieval carvings or paintings from the Renaissance. The figure imagery is based on Ciravolo’s sketches, figure drawings, photos from newspapers and magazines, or photos she took.

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Monika Drożyńska: Resistance Embroiderer

Photo Story
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Latte Capitalizm, hand embroidery on cotton, 8×14 inch

Polish artist Monika Drożyńska brings her resistance embroidery to a New York audience in a solo show at Open Source Gallery and her Urban Embroidery project. The connections she makes with words within many different languages are a dexterous game of text and symbols on fabric, an adept study of transformative change for a better world. Polish curator Bartek Remisko, speaking about the work, said, “Embroidery can be about threads that bring us together to create social change.” Remisko’s insight speaks to Drożyńska’s focus on embroidery techniques in contemporary art and textiles in public spaces to further the collective conversation and play with conventional expectations.

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Whisperings from the Wormhole with @talluts

Dear Grete Stern

Grete Stern, Autorretrato (Self-Portrait) 1943, Gelatin silver print, Estate of Horacio Coppola, Buenos Aires

Today, I’m sending out a Valentine – a non-valentine’s Day Valentine, a good-for-eternity Valentine – to the feminist photo montage artist, Grete Stern. Because who else slyly slid their radical societal critiques into photomontages that they made for a light and airy 1950s women’s magazine (chock full of romance serials, crosswords, and lipstick ads)? Grete Stern, that who.

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Behind the Mask: Women Welders at the Culture Lab LIC

Featured Exhibition
Installation view, photo courtesy of Janet Rutkowski

At Culture Lab LIC in Queens, NY, the exhibition Behind the Mask: The Art of Women Welders, curated by Janet Rutkowski and Karen Kettering Dimit, is transforming perceptions of welding as a male-dominated field. Running until April 28, 2024, the show highlights the contributions and creativity of women in welding, with over 50 artworks by 30 artists.

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Hudson Valley Artists: Bibliography Sourcing Inspiration at Dorsky

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Installation view of Hudson Valley Artists: Bibliography at The Dorsky Museum of Art

Words evoke a myriad of visuals; images encapsulate words, concepts, and ideals. This symbiotic relationship, the dance between the written word and visual art, is the crux of Bibliography. On view at the Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz through April 7, this exhibition documents how books conjure different facets of the exhibiting artists’ thoughts. Books function as a thematic thread, connecting the artworks on view to broader references of knowledge and providing entry points for understanding their aesthetic, social, or political implications. Exhibiting artists include Osi Audu, Alta Buden, Shari Diamond, Kerry Downey, Stevenson Estime, eteam (Franzisa Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger), Aki Goto, Adam Henry, Matthew Kirk, Niki Kriese, Melora Kuhn, Catherine Lord, Sean Sullivan, and Audra Wolowiec.  

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This is the Future of Non-Objective Art at Atlantic Gallery

Featured Exhibition
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Gallery View: Photo Courtesy of Atlantic Gallery Felix Quinonez

Atlantic Gallery, located a short walk from the High Line in Manhattan’s Chelsea, is currently home to This is the Future of Non-Objective Art, curated by Suzan Shutan. This exhibition gathers over a hundred artists from around the globe, each exploring the boundaries of Non-Objective art through unique sensory experiences, experimental processes, and new techniques. Alongside the show, a detailed 110-page catalog is available, offering further insight into the works and artists involved. This large-scale exhibition runs from February 13 to March 2, 2024.

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Laura Williams: A proponent of mixed messages

In Dialogue
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Laura Williams home studio 2023 by Rebekha Robinson

New Zealand-based painter Laura Williams began her artistic journey twelve years ago in her late 40s, following significant personal upheaval and loss. Turning to art as a means of coping, she replaced alcohol consumption with creativity, using her work to express and manage her anxiety and depression. Diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s, Williams found clarity in her penchant for patterns and symbols, which she employs as a unique language in her paintings. Her work, extensively exhibited across New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, is marked by its distinct yet universally resonant themes. The figures in her art, often women alongside men, clothed or unclothed, convey a sense of isolation despite their physical proximity. The dense and intricate patterns combined with vivid colors create an intensely claustrophobic space vibrating with charged psychological tensions.

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