“Art Speaks, Lend Your Voice” at Arena 1 Gallery

Samuelle Richardson, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

“Art Speaks, Lend Your Voice”

through March 10
Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica

By Genie Davis
Through March 10th at Arena 1 Gallery, “Art Speaks, Lend Your Voice” presented by the Women’s Caucus for Art, is beautiful group show, images carefully juxtaposed by curator Jill Moniz. Moniz has selected 62 artists from throughout the U.S. for this national conference exhibition.

Artists include: Jayne Adams, Kathy Aldous-Schleindl, Shula Arbel, Jenny E. Balisle, Sharon Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Linda Brookshire, Janine Brown, Lorraine Bubar, Julie Carcione, Michele Colburn, Constance Culpepper, Liz Dodson, Laurie Toby Edison, Beth Fein, Clairan Ferrono, Kim Foley, Megan Frances Abrahams, Ellen Freyer, Dwora Fried, Christine Giancola, Amy Gilvary, Betty Green, Shelley Heffler, Mary Kamerer, Veda B Kaya, Linda Kunik, Esther Kwan Simon, J. J. L’Heureux, Beth Lakamp, Lynda Levy, Charity Malin, Aline Mare, Robbin Milne, Lena Moross, Sandra Mueller, Mary Nash, Melissa Reischman, Lynda A. N. Reyes, Samuelle Richardson, Julia Rigby, Karrie Ross, Orly Ruaimi, Linda Jo Russell, Marilou Ryder, Seda Saar, Sondra Schwetman, Jacqueline Secor, Rebecca Setareh, Doni Silver Simons, Kerrie Smith, Stephanie Solomon, Leona Strassberg Steiner, Nathalie Tierce, Linda Vallejo, Elise Vazelakis, Arika Von Edler, Elizabeth White, Holly Wong, Joan Wulf and Tina Ybarra.

The wealth of gorgeous art aside, there is something profoundly compelling to see this much powerful female talent in both abstract and representational genres, all gathered in one place. If art speaks, perhaps what it is saying here is that women’s artistic voices are to be heard, loud and clear.

Megan Frances Abrahams’ paired paintings from her Fleur de Lys series feature a lavender and blue palette and the tiny burgeoning hope of a green bud in a lush fusion of the abstract and representational. Lena Moross offers a beautiful watercolor of a woman hanging her washing; the piece turns the prosaic into something proud. Moross’ decidedly representational work is also from a series, Suburbia. “I stumbled upon a collection of photographs from the 1950’s of women doing laundry which absolutely blew me away,” the artist says. Dwora Fried’s vivid, glorious diorama gives us the Virgin Mary and silvery hub cups with chartreuse military men in a suburban gas station setting. As always with Fried, she creates worlds that draw the viewer deeply inside, into an unexpected place.

Dwora Fried, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

Arika Von Edler, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

The distinctive soft fabric sculptures of Samuelle Richardson are all texture, her sculpted head presented here as richly defined and reverent as a bronze bust, only more alive. A second piece, featuring a triangle with images of eyes and arms perched on two blocks seems like a cry for help, if such a cry could be infused with whimsy. Shelly Heffler’s wall sculpture is an abstract, crumpled and cratered, a road map to the world. The precise and delicate papercut work of Lorraine Bubar jumps off the wall here, with robust sunflowers towering over her very-LA street scene. The amount of detail dazzles.

Veda B. Kaya’s monochromatic work is both romantic and geometric, snowflakes, thick lines, patterns that intersect in Logos. Yvonne Beatty’s abstract Bel Canto Dream has the vivid, light-filled look of stained glass and a vibrant palette created from Sumi and acrylic inks on paper. The indescribable unearthly glow of Aline Mare’s work shimmers, jeweled and hurtling toward the viewer as if through space. Karrie Ross and Seda Saar, two very different artists, both intrigue and compel with works that step outside the commonplace.

In many of these works, there is a definite feminine aesthetic, whether it is a use of color, subject matter, or material that embraces and empowers the curves, lines, forms, and fabrics of what it means to be a woman and an artist. And what precisely does that mean? As seen here, as heard here, it is a sense of the sublime.

Veda Kaya, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Sondra Schwetman, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Shula Singer Arbel, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Shelley Heffler, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Sharon Barnes, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Sandra Mueller, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Samuelle Richardson, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Orly Ruaimi, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Michele Colburn, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Melissa Reischman, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Lynda Levy, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Lorraine Bubar, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Linda Vallejo, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Linda Kunik, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Linda Basha Brookshire, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Laurie Edison, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Kerrie Smith, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Karrie Ross, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Joan Wolf, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

JJ L_Heureux, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Janine Brown, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Holly Wong, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Ellen Freyer, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Elise Vazelakis, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Charity Malin, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Amy Gilvary and Betty Green, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Veda B Kaya, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

Veda B Kaya, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Lena Moross. Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker

Aline Mare, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

Yvonne Beatty, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

Shelly Heffler, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

Megan Frances, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

Lorraine Bubar, Art Speaks, Lend a Voice, Arena 1 Gallery; Photo Credit Genie Davis

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“Art Speaks, Lend Your Voice” at Arena 1 Gallery