Winter im Wohnwagen

Ripetizione is a stunning example of how Isabella Ducrot breathes new life into the fabrics she collected during her travels; by removing them from their places of origin, she instills in them a new aesthetic meaning. Like in many of her works from the Arazzi series, the fabrics take the shape of elegant women’s gowns to express the artist’s feminine poetics. Pattern is also an element of fascination in Ducrot’s artistic practice, and these works represent her attempt at giving voice and scale to patterns of all kind.

A flower has such a short life span; it blooms and it is so majestic at its height but then it just falls away. I find pleasure in painting them and then seeing what happens when they become just a trace of something left. I’ve always been amazed by what’s not there anymore.

                                                                                                                             – Ross Bleckner 

Andrea Bowers' light work, "Sabo-Tabby, From Modern Witch House," continues the artist's exploration of historical resistance movements, workers' rights campaigns, and nonviolent civil disobedience. In this artwork, Bowers pays homage to the enduring spirit of these movements, drawing a resonant thread through time. She alludes to the iconic depiction of an impassioned black cat—an emblem historically associated with superstition, misfortune, and witchcraft— co-opted by labour folklorists since the 1880s to signify acts of sabotage, covert defiance, and various forms of collective action. 

Initially, feminist concerns — and theory — were my drivers. I worked conceptually, for a while, after graduating. I even ran a women-only project space in the early ’90s, from my SoHo studio loft. I then literally shut the door on all that and turned within to work completely intuitively. I had found my voice — which I felt was a feminist achievement in itself — and no longer wanted my imagination to be structured by theory.

               — Alex John Beck, “Discovery Beings with Drawing,” Upstate Diary, April 2020