Intern's March Exhibition Review

Intern's March Exhibition Review

By: Melissa Woolridge

The walls of the first exhibition space in ARC gallery are lined with twelve beautiful mixed media drawings by Kina Bagovaska. Her series is titled “Sacred and Erotic”, and the artwork certainly reflects this theme as all the drawings focus upon the organic female form. Kina also utilizes architectural arches that frame each figure, resembling the curves of a woman’s body. The entire series possesses a ritualistic and primitive feel that can be traced back to ancient Thracian figurines.  Each of the works emanates its own spirituality and sacredness, while still retaining a sense of eroticism. By using simple, minimalist lines and natural materials Kina achieves the portrayal of ceremonial dancers, using their bodies to perform an empowering dance while echoing an archaic tradition.

Sacred and Erotic by Kina Bagovaska

         The second exhibition space is occupied by Masha Keating’s colorful and powerful paintings that breathe with an abstract dynamic of organic and architectural forms. Using bright colors with defined and strong lines that contour throughout her paintings Keating connects each piece with grace and precision. Each artwork flows onto the next with poise and brilliance of pigment, even through different painting materials from oil to acrylic. A theme that is represented in many of her paintings is repetition and reflection. Particularly in her flower paintings such as “Tangle”, two large sunflowers intertwine petals among a mesh of small budding flowers against a background of blue sky. I very much enjoy the vibrancy of color in this piece as well as the mirroring aspect of composition that is also represented in the abstract painting of her exhibit.

 Masha Keathing, Tangle, Oil on Linen

         Walking into the last exhibition, it flowed very smoothly from Masha Keating’s paintings. The last space had a sense of abstract surrealism yet the works retained accessibility, as mixed-media collages of fishes overlaid with delicate colors, balanced the room. Barbara McIntyre’s collection of work titled, “The Fish Series”, gave the entire exhibition a comforting notion of childhood wonder and subtle yet intricate craft.

Barbara McIntyre, Dorado & Wahoo, Mixed Media on Panel

In conclusion, the three exhibitions as a whole were very successful. Each individual artist brought their own uniqueness to the gallery and was tied together by organic form while maintaining strong independence and originality. I very much enjoyed Bagovaska’s performative aspect as well as her embracing of erotic and natural figures in her drawings. Her pieces flowed well with Keating’s stunning paintings of abstract and floral forms, which also connected well to the colors and the dreamlike quality of McIntyre’s fish series.