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Altaring Course

Political Altars For Our Times

Linda Arreola, Ann Brace, Silvia Capistran, Tina Gulotta, Jennifer Murphy, Margaret Guzman/Cristina Shallcross, Cindy Suriyani

Dates of Exhibition:                   October 8 through November 7, 2004

Opening Reception:                   Friday, October 8, 2004

The Avenue 50 Studio is pleased to announce an exhibition of political altars by artists Linda Arreola, Ann Brace, Silvia Capitstran, Tina Gulotta, Jennifer Murphy, Margaret Guzman/Cristina Shallcross, and Cindy Suriyani.   Stylistically distinct, these altars raise questions about war, the border, environmental issues, and our star spangled banner--the flag.   The altars, exciting in their diversity, blur the line between traditional altar making and contemporary sculpture, exhorting the viewer to consider a change in both personal and political life.  

Linda Arreola fashioned " Star-Spangled Banner" out of bricks in response to her concern regarding the flag's symbolism as intransigent power.

Anne Brace's altar is in recognition of her father, and how his life reflected political change in his landscape.

Silvia Capitstran's minimal, but powerful work speaks to the deaths of the women of Juarez, but expands the issue to include violence towards all women.  

Tina Gulotta's "Casus Belli" is an angry outcry over the atrocities perpetrated in the name of the American government, and the American public's denial of the horrors of war.  

Jennifer Murphy's "Riparian Relics" is a memorial to the lost wildlife, beauty and function of the Arroyo Seco watershed.  

Margaret Guzman/Cristina Shallcross created "Del Desierto, Ni Un Lamento/From the Desert, Not one Lament" dedicated to those persons who attempted to cross the Mexican/U.S. Border and lost their lives in the Sonoran Desert.  

Cindy Suriyani's " Tomb of Unknown Victims " speaks to the unheard, universal victim -- that person who had dreams and hopes, forever silenced, forgotten, who has become a sta tistic, whose life and death is never validated.

The altars created in this exhibit are politically powerful statements from nine artists whose voices plead for a change in direction in the community they love. _____________________________________________________________________________________

When:    Currently through November 7, 2004