Entering the gallery you meet yourself, shattered and disarrayed, through a fragmented, mirror-on-mirror sculpture by Jennifer Ryan, "It's All Smoke and Mirrors." What follows is a thematically and visually rich kaleidoscopic show: wallet- to mural-sized works that channel culture, race, ethnicity, gender and disability through the scope of life's relentless recycling of physical appearances and psychological states of mind.
Christopher Schneberger's "A Case of Levitation: The Story of Frances Naylor" deals with the things we do in dreams that we cannot otherwise imagine doing. His surreal vintage-like photographs with text combine fantasy and truth about Frances Naylor, born in 1907. We're told that she lost both her legs at age 3. At 13, she dreamed so hard about walking that she one day magically levitated and drifted through the house, as if she had legs. "Measuring Frances" depicts the legless child floating against the wall as her mother measures her height.
Then there's Matt Sesow. At age 9, he lost an arm in an airplane propeller. He made his dream of becoming a successful artist reality as evidenced in "Left Behind With Bunny," rendered in his signature punk cartoon style.
One needn't lose a limb to feel severed by, or from, society by virtue of a physical condition. "And then Kelly Green got fat and then Kelly Green got fatter and then Kelly Green didn't matter any more," by Jim Bloom, sums up how harsh life can be.
Similarly, other artists tackle things Mother Nature doles out for the psyche to sort. Gender and sexual identity, pregnancy, illness, aging -- all affect body appearance and shape how we view ourselves. In Elizabeth Silver's "Untitled (Janet)," androgynous figures emerge pained and strained from a tangle of scribbled forms. Sofia Lee Moran's photograph of Reina, a transvestite, approaches the subject with soft matter-of-factness. Andrea Cote's photograph, "Wait," captures the pregnant artist subsumed by her enormous belly, her head scaled to doll-sized helplessness.
Self-image may be chained to a job, domestic or assigned role. "How has my domestic duty made me wild?" asks Claire Watson. With wit and stealth, she wraps her answers in incongruous constructions, including "Wild Maid," an outsize broom with fierce double hornlike handles and cascades of sensuous blond hair where hard, sturdy bristles should be.
Puppetlike sculptures by Rondi Casey make surprise appearances throughout the gallery. Held together by delicate strings, they look humanly fragile. But as "Three Graces," a trio of sisters rendered in different skin colors and textures, suggest, they find strength through their shared humanity.
For "The Body in Motion" at EEAC, artists were challenged "to get gestural and put organic motion into a work," according gallery director Jane Kirkwood. The show was judged by Christina Mossaides Strassfield, museum director/head curator of Guild Hall.
Bodies of water were among the favorite subjects. Anthony Lombardo won best in show for "Wave and Rocks," a pinhole photograph of deliciously clear water washing over a sea of rocks. Honorable mention went to Annie Wildey for her small oil, "Hallock's Bay." Scratched to near abstraction, it is a study of sky-gray, blue and pewter water ebbing in the Orient moonlight.
Gina Gilmour also takes to water in one of the few examples of sculpture in this show. "House on the Water," a mixed media work, is dominated by an enormous tsunami about to devour a tiny swimmer.
Artists of the Renaissance period believed that physical gestures of the human body reflected the movement of the soul. Elizabeth Malunowicz puts a humorous but disturbing spin on this notion with her honorable mention painting, "Streaming Live (on the evening news)." A computer slide along the bottom of the work replicates video running time; above are a series of facial portraits that record the artist's reactions -- surprise, sadness, anger and resignation -- to what she is viewing. These serial images capture a collective cultural disgust toward today's news, be it about terrorism, another earthquake or the state of our economy.
Elizabeth DiNehls' first-place graphite work, "The Sky's the Limit" so masterfully shaded in gradations of light and dark that it can be mistaken for a photograph -- counterbalances the physical weight of a young boy with his timidity as he climbs up, or down, a ladder (we're not sure which).
A gem of a pastel by Linda Capello similarly projects noble strength within the human form. She won honorable mention for "Dressing," a simplified drawing of an older, full-bodied woman bending to adjust the cuff of her pants. We feel the tautness in her shoulders, the flick of her wrist, the morning sun streaming in and the newness of the day.
The exhibition ends where this assessment began: with the word. Jax Peter Lowell won first place in the poetry category for "They Say You Danced." Rich in sensual color, texture and mood, it reminds us of the power of the written word to paint a picture.
Beyond 'The Body'
'The Body in Motion'
On view through April 9 at
East End Arts Council.
133 East Main St., Riverhead
eastendarts.org, 727-0900
Visitors can pick up a coupon for a free class at EEAC or a consultation/session at local businesses, all related to the 'The Body in Motion' exhibit.
'The Body Altered'
On view through April 18 at Art Sites.
651 West Main St., Riverhead
artsitesgallery.com, 591-2401
Free programs offered in conjunction with the exhibit:
Saturday, March 20, 2 p.m.: PowerPoint presentation 'Mirror, Mirror on Your Wall,' followed by panel discussion with Christina Strassfield, Bastienne Schmidt, Candyce Brokaw and Marisa Viola. Part of North Fork Arts Project.
Saturday, March 27, 5 p.m.: Poetry reading organized by North Sea Poetry Scene.