Real Masks Panel Discussion - Oct 6 - 12:30pm - reception to follow
A panel discussion about the work of Elizabeth Bonaventura on view at the Heimbold Visual Arts Center, Sarah Lawrence College , Sept. 7 through Oct. 22, 2023.
Moderated by Angela Dufresne, with Carrie Moyer, Jennifer Macdonald, Claudia Bitran, Wells Chandler, Chris Willcox, Amy DiGennaro.
Bonaventura keenly observed how masking, memesis and exaggerated gestures permeates our social negotiations. Our questioning will address how Bonaventura’s work profoundly interrogates memesis and its productive entanglement with alienation. Self consciously with her early work, and cathartically in her work made during the early stages of FTD, Bonaventura unsentimentally observed how alienations can both interrupt our ability to know or stabilize a notion of self and play a part in a more nuanced return to self through identity construction. All of her paintings depict and put into action - the gestural qualities of her work and painterly touch - this process of the self in proximity to others. Throughout her practice Bonaventura ruthlessly and compassionately acknowledges its subjects’ labor to build positive entanglements, deploying absurd, often abject humor as a creative force against isolation.
Real Masks, 1996 Casein and wax on unstretched muslin, 84 x 120 inches
The mission of The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center is to cultivate appreciation and understanding of the arts and to foster creativity and intellectual growth in ways that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of theVisual and Studio Arts program. Through rotating exhibitions, artist lectures, hands-on workshops, and regular publications, The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center seeks to bridge the classroom with the art world. Our programming supports a diverse range of artists in terms of gender, race, perspectives, methodologies, and disciplines, whose works inform and challenge our students and the community. Primarily a teaching gallery, we involve students in all aspects of our exhibition programming—installation, curation, artist lecture selection and preparation, and collaborative publication efforts—simultaneously supporting our students, the teaching artists within the college, and the vibrant community surrounding us.
The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center primarily generates programming internally and is not currently considering external exhibition proposals.
Gallery Hours:Weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Weekend showings by request between 1-4 p.m.
Current Exhibit
ElizabethBonaventura
The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Art Center is pleased to present,If we change the way we look at things, do the things we look at change?, a solo exhibition by artist Elizabeth Bonaventura. The exhibition will be on view from September 7th – October 22nd at the gallery’s location in the Heimbold Visual Arts Center at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY with an opening reception on September 7th, from 4:00 pm– 6:00 pm.
Opening reception:September 7 from 4-6pmOn view:September 7 – October 22
Panel Discussion:Friday October 6 at 12:30pm
Missed an exhibit?
Seerecaps and photos from past exhibitsat The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center.
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Elizabeth Bonaventura- If we change the way we look at things do the things we look at change? September 7 - October 22#thegalleryatheimbold
Elizabeth Bonaventura - If we change the way we look at things do the things we look at change? September 7 - October 22#heimboldvisualartscenter
Elizabeth Bonaventura’s pieces show a nuanced understanding of environmental alienation– her figures appearing disassociated from one another and from themselves. The outlines of figures in her later work echo the same compelling questions of her earlier work: How big a component is context? There is longing that merges with searching, a steady need for connection or contact while grappling with an unanchored anxiety. Within each piece, there is an enduring understanding of what lies beyond the canvas, paper, or wood. Materiality serves as a catalyst, propelling the viewer into gleeful, fraught worlds. Bonaventura captures the intricacies of external and internal experiences, accepting the transformative processes of painting as a potent expression of context and self.
Come by 1-4pm tomorrow!
On view through Oct 22
Title Unknown, 2018
Casein on paper
22 x 31 inches
Loaned by artist and PoA
#thegalleryatheimbold
Elizabeth Bonaventura -If we change we look at things, do the things we look at change?#heimboldvisualartscenter
“如果我们改变我们看待事物的方式,things we look at change?” encompasses works that articulate the path of Bonaventura's artistic life. It encapsulates her journey before and after her diagnosis of a rare form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia, the behavioral variant, which led to her early retirement. Works range from her highly experimental early collage work and altered postcards to the remarkably creative phase in the early stage with FTDbv.Throughout, willowy figures struggle with their entanglement with vibrant backgrounds, obscurely at odds with their wobbly counterparts. All parties seem accepting of the humorous and absurd feedback loop of aspiration and alienation. The exhibition will showcase an extensive collection of work created between 1995 and 2019, totaling over sixty works on wood and paper.
Visit this weekend, Saturday by appointment, Sunday 1-4pm.
Visitors, message us before your planned visit!
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Join us for the opening of Elizabeth Bonaventura's "If we change the way we look at things, do the things we look at change?"
This upcoming Thursday, September 7th from 4-6pm in the Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center.
"Two Figures in the Woods with Fire" 2010, casein on panel, 36"x48"
Visual and Studio Arts Program - Student Exhibition
Diana Hardage, ‘25 - Photographic Fairytales
Avila Edmonds-Doberenz, ‘24 - Cotton candy allegation