Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 8th, 5 - 7 pm
Edith Isaac-Rose; paintings and works on paper
Elyse Defoor; paintings and mixed-media works
DUZA; silhouettes and works on paper

The varied work of Edith Isaac-Rose, Elyse Defoor and DUZA has this in common; it can be viewed as addressing the tenet that the personal is political. Each artist, whether directly or obliquely, responds to the pressures the “outer” world imposes on the individual, via oil on canvas, mixed-media, and cut silhouette.

In approach, choice of subject matter, and method, Isaac-Rose is direct and confrontational. She sees the world governed by large power structures, of which the Suit is the embodiment, rendered schematically in mere outlines, or posturing as vigorously brushed surrogate-animal forms. For her, the world is a stage on which cruel farces and tragedies are endlessly replayed by actors with different faces but universal gestures and uniforms.

Societal issues and concerns inform Elyse Defoor’s art like an apprehension encountered in a dream. In paintings and works on paper, her nervous touch and mark serve as seismographic indications of larger tremors. While it is intimate in origin, her work does not express comfort but instead indicates an awareness of the parameters imposed by larger forces on individual lives.

The silhouettes of DUZA imply that identity is, to a large degree, trivialized and commodified by our culture; that the authentic gesture may now be impossible. The images she employs were common as depictions of women in men's magazines beginning in the 60s. The translation of these forms into paper cut-outs departs from the traditional notions of the medium by depicting women in provocatively "sexy" poses that range from submissive to aggressive (these are not your great-great-grandparents' silhouettes).

By focusing primarily on one facet of the work of these three artists, it is possible to see how each of them locates the idea of Identity within the larger context of our world, of which we are both a part and apart. How we legitimately connect with that world – one that demands that we feel autonomous while remaining enthralled, that gives us the “choice” between Democrats and Republicans, Ford or Toyota, (but not between car/no car) – while maintaining our identities is a concern manifested in these works of Edith Isaac-Rose, Elyse Defoor, and DUZA.

Websites for work of Edith Isaac-Rose, Elyse Defoor and DUZA