August 23 - September 22, 2019
Cindy Mehr– Celebrations
Mixed Media on Canvas
Helena Davis Gallery
Opening Reception
Friday, August 23, 2019
6:00 - 9:00 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Closing Artist Talk
Sunday, September 22, 2019
2:00 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Artist Statement
In this exhibition I explore the different forms of celebration and the subsequent periphery emotions they elicit such as excitement, violence, radiance, gaiety, and fleetingness. I combine a variety of media on canvas to create explosions of contrasting forms which, on the one hand, evoke digital age bombardment, but on the other hand, celebrate the creative process itself. I subscribe to a maximal approach to painting that I believe reflects the current age in which we are living, an age in which one is presented with information faster than one can digest it, the result bringing about a simultaneous sensation of exhilaration and chaos. As my tools, I use fragmented images resembling collage and juxtapose these with undulating, amorphous, organic forms, simultaneously depicting the forces of creation and destruction. Paradoxically, these elements of destruction, in the form of scraps from my personal environment as well as the world at large, link to larger parts from whence they came, so, the part becomes the whole. The juxtaposition of air-brushed and textured surfaces also creates ambiguity, with the resulting tableau treading the thin line between violence and celebration. I am Fascinated by the interplay of opposites and believe that when one shows contradictory elements back to back, one also suggests the territory that lies in between. It is this nebulous "in-between" territory that interests me, for it is this part that engages the viewer in the creative process.
Brief Biography
Cindy Mehr has earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and her Master of Arts degree from Millersville University in Pennsylvania. Her art reflects her experiences as a world traveler and her time spent living in such places as Spain, France, Japan, Morocco, Colombia, and Burkina Faso, where she has exhibited her work as well. Locally, she has had solo shows at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, the Night Gallery in Leesburg, Virginia, and the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. She has won jurors’awards at ArtQuest Maryland, the Maryland Federation of Art, the Lancaster Museum ofArt shows, the Towson Art Collective, and the Annapolis Maritime Museum show. In June 2015 she was a featured artist at the Towson Arts Collective and in July 2015 she was juried into the Third Annual Maryland Art at College Park show, an exhibit that showcases Maryland artists. She currently works out of her studio in Bel Air, Maryland and her village house in the south of France, where she is part of an art cooperative.
More information: cindymehr.com/
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