September 04 - October 28, 2008
The Body as Image
Art Exhibition
Works by: Amy Caron, Katie Commodore, Sol Kjøk, Philip Pearlstein, Kristi Ropeleski, Diana Schmertz, Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig
at the Center
Artist's Reception: Saturday, September 20, 5:00-7:00pm immediately following the roundtable, Sex and Love: The Biology of Romance
As a literal and figurative backdrop to Sextet: Six Roundtables on The Biology and Psychology of Sexuality, the Philoctetes Center presents the exhibition, The Body as Image. Eight artists explore diversity—and occasionally perversity—in the terrain of the human physique. Tattooed, trussed, spinning aloft, brazen or coy, alone or with partners, the figures in these paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs capture the human form in settings both real and imagined. How do the images appeal to our prurient interests, our voyeuristic impulses, our aesthetic ideals?
Diana Schmertz’s absorption in the interplay of fingers and flesh is highlighted in the arrangement of her multi-part tondo oil paintings, while Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig’s collaborations result in a kind of double exposure, a figurative pas de deux. Idealized, almost post-sexual forms twist into knots in Sol Kjøk’s swirling compositions, while Philip Pearlstein uses line and tone to embody his vital, realist nudes. Kristi Ropeleski hurls plump bodies skyward or captures frank, full frontal gazes, while Amy Caron skewers the stick-figure ethos of modern marketing and Katie Commodore inscribes a multiplicity of sexual stances onto a color-chip quilt.
The exhibition may be viewed M-F from 11:00AM to 5:00PM, and by appointment. Please call 646-422-0544 or email info@philoctetes.org to make arrangements.
Exhibition curated by Hallie Cohen, Chair, Art Department, Marymount Manhattan College.
See feature on
Norwegian Consulate Website
Kristi Ropeleski, Blood Harmony 4.1
Tarrah Krajnak & Wilka Roigi, Pose 5
Sol Kjøk, String of Beads 40
Diana Schmertz, The Space Between (detail)