Kenkeleba house
Kenkeleba house and the Wilmer Jennings gallery

Stefani_Mar

STEFANI MAR: NATURED
May 24 to July 1, 2023

 
 

Press Release

Brochure
Reception

 

STEFANI MAR: NATURED

From May 24 to July 1, 2023 the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba is pleased to presentNATURED, a solo exhibition of installations and paintings by STEFANI MAR. The exhibition is curated by Archivist Sur Rodney (Sur).

For this exhibition, Mar will present a series of watercolor and gouache paintings, along with complimentary sculptural elements.  These inspiring and innovative works were created while working in her studio in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, and while working in a community garden near her residence in Lower Manhattan’s Alphabet City. Thus, her contact with nature and isolation during the pandemic inspired this body of work.

As an artist and designer, STEFANI MAR, a Seattle, WA native who has lived in Lower Manhattan since 1980, has explored different materials and forms to examine current and perennial obsessions about human relationships with the planet and beyond. She has also worked for many years as a textile designer and is known in the theater world as a costume designer for dance, theater and opera performances that have been staged worldwide. She has continuously maintained a studio practice over the decades where she has explored nature as in the inner life of stones and the evolutionary movement of clouds as they sometimes appear in Chinese mythology.

Things remembered and imagined came into focus, while thoughts sharp and hazy, flights of fancy, dreams of justice and revenge, attempts at retrieving memories occupied my brain, each in their turn. The melodies of my memory were burnished with fuzzy dream puffs, invading thought bubbles and obsessions of the moment. . . Stefani Mar

STEFANI MAR’S work has been presented upstate at The Newberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase.  In New York City   her work has been exhibited at The Museum of Chinese in America; Bronx Museum of Art; Center for Book Arts; Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Arts Center; the Storefront for Art & Architecture, and Artists Space. Curator and Archivist Sur Rodney (Sur) will contribute a short essay about STEFANI MAR’S NATURED to compliment the exhibition.

This exhibition is made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Mosaic Fund, the Ruth Foundation and many generous friends.

 
 
 

Installation Photos : Christian Carone
Invitation Design : Calo Rios
Reception Photos : Rodríguez Calero