BFA Thesis Exhibition

Emma Weisman and Jennifer Dardano

Monday, April 25 - Friday, April 29, 2005

Augusta Savage Gallery   

 

Emma Weisman's work focuses on relationships between women and on the intimate, quiet space of these relationships. Her paintings are private moments of tension and clam, of connection and disconnect, of fullness and emptiness, of spirituality, sensuality, and beauty: all of the complex emotions that exist in the silent space between lovers.

Ms. Weisman's paintings are voyeuristic, allowing the viewer into a quiet, secret space where she cannot or should not exist. She does not want to objectify the women for the viewer, but rather share a still moment of mysterious, spiritual, and sensual narrative that would normally stay hidden from view.

She chose monochromatic color for many of the paintings to add to the quietness of mood, and to focus primarily on light patterns on the figure and surrounding space. The second focus of the project was to experiment with paint application, using both loose and more refined brushwork.

Ms. Weisman's influences include Balthus, for the intimacy and tension he creates; Pierre Bonnard, for his composition and use of layering rather than perspective to create space; John Singer Sargent, for his brushwork and attention to light; and Eric Fischl, for his subject matter, color and composition, particularly in "The Bed, The Chair..." series.

Jennifer Dardano's work started when the need for a less complicated way of living became obvious. She was not paying attention to the little things that are so important. Life is much more complicated when you are trying to accomplish something and you have to give up something else in order to do it. She started building these imaginary places where things were basic. The compositions and the activity of what was happening in each painting was very minimum. With time the work started to get more and more complex. Ms. Dardano managed to keep the images simple even though they are so active because of the marks and the patterning and less obvious at places where the marks become almost invisible.