The Spinning Plate Gallery is hosting its “Outside/In” show this Spring from May 5 through the 31st. The exhibit will feature the works of four artists, Karen Antonelli, Constance Merrimen, Risë Nagin, and Michel Demetria Tsouris. All four artists are showcasing their most recent works, using the night, window, and bed, as the focused subject matter. The night, widow, and bed provoke, “desire and regret, the known and unknown, portals and veils,” according to the local gallery. The artists mined their images to, “discover their wealth of metaphors, inviting the audience in to wonder and wander deeper into their associations. The memories they conjure, the ease with which their meanings alternate, and an examination of life’s big questions.”
The featured works will expose the night, bed, and, window with artistic symbolism. The night serves as a mystery and blanket, the bed symbolizes birth and death, and the window as a veil that separates the frame to give the viewer a closer look. According to the gallery, “in life we are constantly facing both a universe of paradox and resolve. These images provide a path to exploring both, inviting questions, and occasionally answers about what we do and do not know; our sense of connection and disconnection; the perceptions we choose; and those we dismiss as we face both paradox and resolve.” The artwork at the exhibit will provide a glimpse into the answers to these questions.
The gallery invites everyone to explore with them as the artists’ works prompt them to inquire. The artists search for the answers between paradox and resolve with different approaches in their desired mediums. In the words of the featured artists themselves:
“There’s a phrase both in French and in Russian: between the Dog and the Wolf, I know only the French: “Entre Chien et Loup.” I relate to that twilight zone between sunset and dusk where one feels safe, just here, just now, and the rest is unknown; a liminal edge place between the familiar and unfamiliar, between the internal and the external, existence and extinction.”
– Karen Antonelli
“There’s a phrase both in French and in Russian: between the Dog and the Wolf, I know only the French: “Entre Chien et Loup.” I relate to that twilight zone between sunset and dark where one feels safe, just here, just now, and the rest is unknown; a liminal edge place between the familiar and unfamiliar, between the internal and the external, existence and extinction.”
-Risë Nagin
“Window, night, time…night, window, bed…The window frames the view of the woods which surrounds the house. At night, that small but complex forest loses its detail and becomes one silhouette shape in front of hundreds of sun settings. The woods seem constant, although I know that it is slowly changing. At night, I lie in my safe bed and look out the window that is inches away. The window is a frame for viewing. Wild animals and imagined things are hidden or revealed by bits of light. Is the window a barrier or a portal? My current body of work is rooted here.”
-Constance Merriman
“Bed, window, night…working with the bed image for thirty years, I have learned that there is no end to mining an image. The studies provoke me to ask more, feel more, and break through my perceived barriers; the ones that separate you from me. I work with this iconic image to make my way from the personal to the universal, searching deep down.”
-Michel Demetria Tsouris
Outside/In will be at the Spinning Plate Gallery in East Liberty from May 5-31. Doors to the exhibit will be open from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Come enjoy an evening of art, symbolism, and lively conversation.
