Karen Bozik, Dona Laurita and Camilla Briggs
SLIDING DOOR GALLERY PRESENTS: New Paintings by Karen Bozik PLUS works by Dona Laurita and Camilla Briggs
Opening reception: Friday, October 2nd, 2009, 6-10pm
Exhibit runs October 2nd through October 31st, 2009
“THE RABBIT WITH ONLY ONE HOLE SOON IS CAUGHT”
FOOD ALLEGORIES FOR ANCESTORS
New paintings by Karen Bozik
“Food Allegories For Ancestors” is an introduction to a diverse body of work exploring concepts related to genetic memory. These concepts can include dream work, cultural inclinations and emotional impulses. The artist, of Slovak ancestry, has discovered a psychic/ancestral map which extends from the silk road regions to the former Soviet Union.
In this exhibit, Karen Bozik is visiting the tradition of still-life painting to address memory, using a combination of oils and acrylics on wood and plaster.
Karen Bozik, a founding member of Sliding Door Gallery, has exhibited extensively throughout Denver and the state of Colorado since 1990.
“departure” photgraphy by Dona Laurita “nest” mixed media works by Camilla Briggs
Artist Statement for “Departure”
The images of Departure suggest a deviation from a plan or procedure – a death of a known reality to one that is unknown. Departure experiences the self and body as a private inner universe and the instant collision with a public one.
Dona Laurita has created images professionally for the past twenty three years. She has been involved in artist-in-resident programs ranging from creating art with youth at Children’s Hospital, in public schools throughout Colorado, and many programs with at-risk youth and migrant workers. She also operates a photography business, Foto di Vita/Laurita Fotografia specializing in fine art documentary photography. She has enjoyed decades of wonderful experiences as a visual historian for thousands of clients, and believes that between life and death… there are only photographs.
Artist Statement for “Nest”
The pieces for Nest explore gestation and birth. The subject of the egg paired with genetic imagery creates a place for the unknown to grow and hatch. It is the very act of nesting that provides us with a place to house our burgeoning offspring. Though just as important, the container becomes secondary to the contents—a concept that spirals into itself, as the nest and the egg and the genetic material are all containers or nests for something more detailed and complex. In this way, the container and its treasures become inseparable.
For over ten years, Camilla Briggs worked to preserve the art of Colorado elders; now she is focusing on her own art. Overall, her work explores light, transparency, the use of containers, layering, movement and often some interactive element. Materials tend to include appropriated books, reclaimed white goods and linens, beeswax, feathers, paper, insects, mica, beads, seeds and sand, flowers and leaves, rocks and wood, copper wire and rice.
