2022 National Prize Show Talk: Personal Narrative

2022 National Prize Show Talk: Personal Narrative

Tuesday, June 21, 7:00 - 8:00pm Eastern Time, on ZOOM 

Join us for the first of two online talks, presented as part of CAA's 2022 National Prize Show. 

Our first talk, Personal Narrative, focuses on the artwork of Kathryn Geismar (Somerville, MA); Raul Rene Gonzalez (San Antonio, TX); Jeff Rivers (Philadelphia, PA) and Zoe Perry-Wood (Lexington, MA). Join us for an informal, online discussion of how family and identity inform each artist's practice. 

Please pre-register on ZOOM in order to receive the event link. 

Speakers: 

Kathryn Geismar's portrait project began as a desire to understand her oldest child’s identity evolution. It started as a gaze at the other, her job being to see and to depict. Over time, she entered into the equation, becoming subject as well as artist.

Portraits are drawn in graphite on translucent Duralar sheets that are then overlapped. The loose overlays of faces and figures creates a confusion of forms. Combining the images allows the figures and faces to merge and separate and tell their own relational story where categories of self/other, mother/child, and male/female blur and become fluid.

Raul Rene Gonzalez's work explores topics such as work, fatherhood, identity, gender roles, construction, labor, identity, pop culture, and abstraction. Gonzalez uses versatile methods of painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, performance, and dance. He chooses to work with a variety of mediums because that allows me complete freedom in communicating. Each component of his artwork takes on symbolic representation, whether it is apparent or subliminal. Whether it be through story-telling through paintings and drawings or sharing imagined spaces through abstract paintings and mixed-media installations, the purpose of Gonzalez's work is to inspire and energize.

Jeff Rivers is an African-American, self-taught visual artist, designer, and community advocate who works to empower minority groups through social impact art programs and street art.

 Rivers' practice is a mixed media blend of painting and drawing that combines the figurative with abstract landscapes. Rivers uses fabric in his paintings to 'dress' the figure to create life-size representations of people documented from his daily experience. Memory and a sense of place are conjured through these figures. The texture of the fabric invites the viewer to engage with the work in close physical touch and intimacy, however the anonymity of the figures accentuates a sense of isolation and emotional detachment.

Zoe Perry-Wood holds a BFA in photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Zoe’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Gallery Kayafas and Art@Palace Road at Simmons School of Social Work. Shown internationally, Zoe has been included in group and juried exhibitions at The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Kinsey Institute at Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University, Soho Photo in New York, Gallery Photographica in San Francisco, Photo Center NW, WA., Camera Obscura Gallery, CO., Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA., Bakalar Gallery at Massachusetts College of Art, Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, Vermont Photo Workplace Gallery, University Place Gallery at Harvard University, and in Boston at The St. Botolph Club. Images from the BAGLY Prom project were up on The Fence, a summer-long, outdoor, juried photography exhibit on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Zoe’s work is represented by Gallery Kayafas.

In her work, Zoe investigates and documents mainstream groups as well as non-conforming subcultures. Her early social documentary work focused on street corners, cafes and subways. She currently has several ongoing portrait projects, including a series focusing on women aging with pride as well as a seven-year project documenting Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Transgender Youth (BAGLY), making portraits of youth at their Prom.

Have questions? Contact Erin Becker at ebecker@cambridgeart.org