Gallery 263 Winter Residency
Residents: Georgia Kennedy, Nicole Maloof & Veronica Shimanovskaya
Artists Reception, Saturday February 4, 6-8pm
Exhibition February 2-12, 2012
Gallery 263 is pleased to present its fourth Artists in Residency exhibition, featuring local artists Georgia Kennedy, Nicole Maloof and Veronica Shimanovskaya. For 10 weeks, these women have used 263 as their personal studio—realizing large scale work they could not create in their home studios. The exhibition will feature the work produced during that period. Each artist was selected individually with her own goals and vision.
Georgia Kennedy Installation detail.
Georgia Kennedy lives in Somerville. She received her BFA in painting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2008. Kennedy’s installation investigates interconnectedness and reflectivity. Her project is inspired by a 3rd century Buddhist tale which recurs in the Mahayana Buddhist texts of God Indra's lair. The tale features a net stretching to infinity with a jewel at each rope intersection. Kennedy uses ancient fish net tying techniques with a collection of thread, rope, mercury glass, hematite and more. Her installation reiterates the viewer's face in the reflected surfaces, embedding the viewer into the scene.
Nicole Maloof Scroll detail.
Nicole Maloof graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Painting from Boston University in 2006. In 2009, Maloof received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in South Korea. The 2 years abroad greatly affected the current path of her work. Maloof’s work seeks out the strangeness and absurdity of cultural constructs and human relationships. Her project at Gallery 263, a large horizontal drawing, tells a winding story about the lust people develop for objects and how this lust affects society. The drawing’s format is influenced by traditional scroll paintings Maloof saw in South Korea. The narrative responds to current global issues related to wealth—both the extreme fetishism for luxury goods in Asia and the rapidly growing polarization of America’s financial system. The world is no longer centered around other human beings, but rather revolves around the objects we desire.
Veronica Shimanovskaya Painting/sculpture detail.
Veronica Shimanovskaya was born in St.Petersburg, Russia where she received her art education. She holds a Masters degree in Architecture from St. Petersburg University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and is currently a graduate student at the Harvard Extension School. Shimanovskaya teaches oil painting at Brookline Art Center and works as a designer at BlueMetal Architects in Watertown. In our complicated post-critical world, when art continues to be the subject of never-ending discussion, the Masters remain a constant source of inspiration. Evoked by the upcoming 500th anniversary of Michelangelo’s frescos in the Sistine Chapel November 2012, Shimanovskaya's inspiration came through the sensuality and power of Michelangelo's art. Equipped with this inspiration, and her own creative process, she investigates the concept of "touch” in exploratory series dedicated to the subject. She also welcomes the viewers to interact with her work and explore their own creativity.
