April 25 – May 19
Kellogg Gallery
Opening Reception April 27, 5:00-7:00

Women Contemporary Artists is a regional organization of more than 100 creative women actively engaged in the visual fine arts. WCA’s mission is to provide visibility, support and inspiration to women artists. Founded in 1984, they are based in Sarasota and Manatee Counties.

Juror: Danny Olda, critic and curator

Award	First	Last	Title	Medium
1st	Janice	Newman	Morning Mist	Acrylic
2nd	Judy	Kramer	Kaleidoscope Façade	Photography
3rd	Susan	Turconi	The Couple	Akua Ink
Merit	Alice	Harrison	Garden Of The Sea	Acrylic
Merit	Judy	Lyons Scnheider	The Mighty Oak	Callograph & Collage
Merit	Betty	Gerich	I’ve Got Your Back	Watercolor
Merit	Marsha	Ouimette	She, Her, They, Them	Clay
Merit	Jana	Millstone	Weave A Cloth Of Now	Mixed Media

Juror’s Statement
It was a privilege and pleasure working with this exhibition. I’m grateful that I was unrushed and allowed to spend as much time with each piece as it demanded – the experience was a delight. However, the sheer density of high-quality artwork submitted for this exhibition made judging italso very challenging. While a cursory glance makes  clear that each artist in the exhibition takes their work very seriously, a deliberate pause with each piece reveals more.

For example, Morning Mist by Janice Newman depicts a colorful forest mist snaking through a clump of bare trees. The scene is set quietly but with a bold color palette. With efficient brushwork Newman adds visual depth to the scene that transmutes into a conceptual depth, a reservoir of the unknown just ahead. The scene vacillates between feeling serene and unsettling. I found the scene and painting moving, as if I had happened serendipitously upon the landscape on a morning run.

Judy Kramer’s photograph Kaleidoscopic Facade is another such example. The photograph rewards a slow look with an abundance of textures that seem to unfurl the longer your eyes travel the piece. These textures are paired with a near perfect compositional structure that is not the product of a painter’s careful hand and intent, but somehow searched out and found existing wild in the real world. The piece is split in half and further into thirds, the patterns of tiles setting a steady visual rhythm that sends each viewer’s gaze up, across, and diagonally back down to begin again.

Finally, The Couple by Susan Turconi depicts two minimally detailed bodies beside each other, seperated by a cloudy bruise-colored negative space. The vertiginous height of the shoulders that figurative painting stands on is exceeded only by the claustrophobic weight of its own history. That Turconi’s treatment of these two bodies feels so timeless – as classical as it is contemporary – underscores how deft her skill is. The understated size and rendering of the figures requires a haiku-like efficiency of expression that Turconi delivers on.

These, of course, are only three pieces in this exhibition. I suppose, then, what I hope to
communicate is this: take your time with this exhibition. Give each work of art a thoughtful look and the exhibition will certainly return the favor.

Pick up is May 20 9:00-Noon