Generator features work by Soberman and Stuart
By Margaret Failoni, Jan, 5 2007

Works by Linda Soberman and Mary Stuart Saturday, January 6, 5–8pm Generator Gallery, Fábrica la Aurora, Calzada de la Aurora

Linda Soberman’s work is an interesting and carefully dosed combination of present-day technology combining sensitive and very powerful images of women taken from the recent past with the timeless symbols that have always represented the female psyche, such as old family photos of women enhanced by hand-applied embroidery. The images are often blurred like spirits evoked from memory. Some step forward from floral gingham prints, and others float onto the picture plane from a sheet of tissue dress patterns.

Soberman says that, like the work of many artists, her work is intensely personal, reflective and contemplative. “My issues are memory, identity, age and time. Collage transfers, printmaking, wax and oil paint are some of the tools I use in combination with the photographic image. By using old family photos or found images, I stir up unconscious memories and blur boundaries between the past and the present. For me, image making is an indivisible part of remembering, and this journey of personal discovery is a joyful and sometimes frustrating voyage.”

Soberman was recently honored for lifetime achievement in the arts with a 2006 Jewish Women in the Arts Award. Her work can be found in important collections in museums in the United States, Italy, Canada and Mexico. In May 2007, she will participate in the China Sanbao International Printmaking Exhibition and Artists in Residence. 

Like all serious and accomplished artists, Mary Stuart’s art is really a personal diary. When I first became familiar with Stuart’s work she was creating superb conceptual work of great sensitivity and visual beauty, conveying the sometimes difficult relationship between couples.

A delicate 1998 sculpture titled “Te Quiero Aunque Si Duermes Lejos de Mi” (I Love You Even If You Sleep Apart from Me) presented a low, long, narrow bench; on each end of the bench was placed a gold-finish bronze cushion, much like those used by geishas to rest their heads. Running down the center the length of the bench was floating gold leaf, like little Himalayan prayer flags.

During this period, Stuart started sculpting and creating a series of small, dark-patinaed bronze pieces representing charming, imaginary animals. She traveled to Oaxaca by invitation to create wonderful tapestries and rugs, each different and unique. This work was part of an important itinerant museum exhibition. For her next show, Stuart continued on the theme of relationships and presented a strong and stunning group of mosaics, using broken dinner plates as tesserae.

Stuart has chosen for this San Miguel exhibition a series of beautifully executed paintings, oils on linen. The “Shadow” series is particularly interesting and rather lyrical: the white on linen of “Shadows, I” and “Shadows, II” and “Bramble of Shadows,” black paint on raw linen, are particularly well conceived. The paintings are accompanied by a group of recently executed small bronzes along with some from the first group of imaginary pets, all fanciful creatures from Stuart’s magic world. 

Stuart is rightfully considered one of Mexico’s foremost contemporary artists. Her work has been exhibited and collected extensively in both Mexico and the United States.

Noted artist returns to teach at Instituto Allende

Fred Stern, an internationally recognized innovator in public art and the application of computer and video technologies to the arts, will be teaching a class at the Instituto Allende beginning in January. 

The class, entitled “Process Explorations,” is an experimental course exploring the relationship, significance and meaning of artistic process and is open to professional artists and advanced-level art students. It begins with an exploration of personal vision and the creative process. Topics to be covered include the role of the art object and the meaning of completion, dealing with creative blocks, the role of exhibition, gallery and agent relationships, grant-writing strategies and the use of the internet and the importance of an internet presence. The class begins January 10 and meets for 10 weeks on Wednesday afternoons from 4pm to 7pm at the Instituto Allende.

The class structure involves lectures, projects, research and exercises. Stern also plans for the class to be involved in community projects.

Stern has served as Associate Professor of Art at Pratt Institute, New York University and the University of Maryland, where he taught sculpture, mixed media, video art and computer graphics. He was also an instructor at the Instituto Allende. He has received five awards from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous awards from public and private agencies in support of his work.

His video work has recently been included in the MACBA and Caixa Forum collections in Barcelona and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and is presently included as part of a video retrospective at the Reina Sophia, National Gallery in Madrid.

Stern’s most recent work has involved creating natural rainbows in the sky as large as 2000 feet across. In these pieces Stern pumps water into the air to create an artificial rainfall, which refracts the sun’s rays. His best-known rainbow was created over the United Nations building in New York as a visual metaphor for world peace. Details of his rainbow work can be seen at www.rainbowmaker.us.

Stern has coordinated groups of artists in the presentation of public works for the International Sculpture Conference in Washington, DC. and the Primer Gran Festival de Dos Culturas in San Miguel de Allende. He served as an advisor to and participant in the New York Annual Avant Garde festival for over 10 years.