Photo by Peggy Harrison

A U.Va. groundskeeper assisted with the installation of Emilie Brzezinski’s exhibition at the U.Va. Art Museum. At left is a detail of the artist’s “Forest, 2003,” seven pieces of white oak.

Artist goes with the grain

Since the mid-1980s, Emilie Brzezinski has carved sculptural forms from felled trees, which she takes to her studio in McLean. Using a variety of tools — chainsaws, chisels, chains and ropes — she sculpts enormous pieces of wood, uncovering their essential forms. Often retaining the vertical structure of the original, she shows her own marks on the wood, emphasizing the importance of the process as much as the product.

Art lovers can see how Brzezinski’s work takes on both metaphoric (the tree as life experience) and anthropomorphic (the tree as human) meanings in her exhibit at the University Art Museum June 28 through Sept. 7. “Emilie Brzezinski: New Directions” will feature a selection of the artist’s chairs, bowls and hanging forms.
The exhibit is sponsored by the Rosenstiel Foundation and the University of Virginia Arts Council.

As part of the exhibition, the museum has invited Brzezinski to work with Judith Shatin, an internationally known composer and member of the U.Va. music faculty, to create a related musical piece. This effort received partial support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. For details, call 924-3592 or visit the Web site http://www.virginia.edu/artmuseum/.