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Artist
Emilie Brzezinski Reveals Essential Forms In Wood Sculpture At U.Va.
Art Museum
May 22, 2003 --
WHAT:
“Emilie Brzezinksi: New Directions”
WHEN:
Saturday, June 28 – Sunday, Sept. 7
WHERE:
University of Virginia Art Museum
Since
the mid-1980s Emilie Brzezinski has carved sculptural forms from
felled trees, which she brings to her studio in McLean, Va. 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.
Brzezinski
usually works in series, creating environments with her art that
simulate gigantic forests. She also has created chairs and bowls,
many enormous in scale, as well as hanging bark forms that evoke
the human body.
Brzezinski’s
art takes on both metaphoric (the tree as life experience) and anthropomorphic
(the tree as human) meanings. The emergence of a form within the
wood is a natural, and at times arduous, process for her. “Emilie
Brzezinski: New Directions” will feature a selection of the
artist’s chairs, bowls and hanging forms, as well as new pieces.
The
physicality, scale and beauty of Brzezinski’s work, as well
as its multiple meanings, invite collaborations with other art forms.
As part of the exhibition the museum has invited Brzezinski to work
with Judith Shatin, an internationally known composer and member
of the University music faculty, to create a related musical piece.
This effort received partial support from the Virginia Commission
for the Arts.
An
illustrated catalog, with an essay by the art historian Aneta Shine,
accompanies the exhibit.
The
exhibit is sponsored by the Rosenstiel Foundation and the University
of Virginia Arts Council.
The
museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Limited parking
is available behind the museum.
For
details about the exhibit and information about the museum, call
(434) 924-3592 or visit the Web site http://www.virginia.edu/artmuseum/.
Contact:
Jane Ford, (434) 924-4298
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