SMALL WORKS winter 2019

NAWA Gallery, 315 West 39th Street, Suite 508, NYC 10018

February 6 -27. 2019

Reception: February 7, 2019, 5-7 pm

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN ARTISTS WARMS UP WiNTER WITH THEIR SMALL WORK SHOW

Small work show - For the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), the Small Works exhibitions held in the summer and winter have become a treasured tradition among members and non-members alike. From February 6-27, 2019, the works on display at the NAWA Gallery will prove that the size of an artwork does not have to determine its excellence or worth. With a close study, viewers will find remarkable detail and precision at play in several mediums. They will also find a surprising seriousness and boldness of intent often reserved for larger works.

National Association of Women Artists - NAWA is celebrating its 130th Anniversary in 2019, in honor of the five women who gathered together at the Washington Square home of Grace Fitz-Randolph on a cold night in January to create the first women's art club. Today their talented counterparts continue the mission of supporting public awareness of the visual art created by women throughout the United States. Over 800 professional women artists comprise the national membership. Each year an array of juried exhibitions and awards, numerous workshops, and fundraising events increase NAWA's visibility nationwide.

Reception - This winter, NAWA invites friends and newcomers alike to come in from the cold to experience the Small Works Winter Show. The reception on Thursday, February 7, 2019, from 5-7 pm, at the NAWA Gallery, 315 West 39th Street, Suite 508, New York, NY. It will be a rare opportunity to meet the artists and warm up with their bright and innovative works.

Artists - Participating artists include: Mary Ahern, Mildred Alpern, Debra Arter, Francesca Azzara, Diane Dauz Bassin, Lorrie Berry, Pamela J. Black, Sandra Blostein, Sara Slee Brown, Amalia Brujis, Mary Jo Carew, Zemka Carra, Sofia Chitikov, Pam Cooper, Paulette De Lucia, Carol Nipomnich Dixon, Heather Leigh Douglas, Antoaneta Georgieva, Marian Sims Harris, Jill Hellman, Holland Houdek, Shelley M. Hull, Marilyn Lowney Johnson, Loretta Ana Kaufman, Carole Richard Kaufmann, Binna Kim, Karen Kirshner, Jeannine Kitzhaber, Lorraine Klagsbrun, Maria Kompare, Brandy Kraft, Yumie Kusuda, Marie Massey, Nicole Maye Luga, Carolyn McLeod, Isabelle Manuella Milkoff, Grace Modla, Laura Mosquera, Marissa Mule, Patricia Obrien, Julie OConnor, Jane Park, Pokey Park, Anabel Peicher, Diane Price, Wendelin Heloise Ray, Jennifer Reddy, Carolyn Rogers, Catherine Rush, Nadine Joy Saitlin, Anne Sanger, Zelene Schlosberg, Patricia Search, Anita Seltzer, Meryl Shapiro, Linda Sicher, BarbaraSimonson, Gail Skudera, Rosemary W. Sloggatt, Barbara Stein, Amy BrightUnfried, Pamela Waldroup, Brittany Williams Mays, Kathleen Zimmerman and Despina Zografos.

Universe Series - Night Mare - Kathleen Zimmerman’s Universe Series - Night Mare (pictured at the top of this post) was juried into this national NYC exhibition. This serigraphic print is one in a series of 5 related prints (pictured directly above). In these playful explorations, Kathleen looks at the Universe and our reaction to it. Who hasn't dreamed of scary aliens invading from afar, imagined what makes up the rings of Saturn, wondered what it would be like living in the caves of Mars, thought about when we might be drawn into the black hole that keeps our galaxy together or seen heaven when we look up at the stars? These silkscreens use a variety of animals to represent life as they ponder these questions and more. Come and let your mind take a journey with these not so scary life forms. Small in size, whose image size is 7 x 7 printed on a 9 x 9 inch sheet of paper, but large in subject matter, which encompasses the nature of the universe. Both the digital as well as the serigraphic prints can be seen and purchased through this website but be sure to see Night Mare live in exhibition at the NAWA gallery if you happen to be in NYC.

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio

---

Symbolic & Surreal

Kathleen Zimmerman used her graphite drawings as the basis for the creation of both digital and serigraphic prints.

Digital prints - Intimate in scale, the digital prints use rich black ink set against the pure white paper to make pure and dramatic visual statements that draw the viewer in close. These prints capture the beauty of the drawings, while adding a level of refinement and contrast that the printing process and ink are so good at. Kathleen ’s collection of digital archival prints were refined into digital images and printed in limited editions solely by her. All these lovely little jewels are printed on 8 x 10 sheets of bright white smooth 100% cotton fiber, acid-free, lignin-free paper using archival inks. The image sizes range from 3 to 6.75 inches placed thoughtly on the paper. Each print was signed by the artist and has its edition written on the back.

Star Series - Evening, digital print, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

Serigraphic prints - While larger in scale, the serigraphic prints use thoughtfully placed touches of color to make theses visual statements into fresh and vibrant works of art that allow the viewer to stand back. These prints take it one step further by adding the texture of the screen and the pure flat color blocks that complement Kathleen’s way of drawing and her inspired compositions. Kathleen Zimmerman’s collection of serigraphic prints were hand printed on Coventry Rag 290 gram paper with archival serigraphic inks in limited editions of 24 with 2 artist proofs and 3 printers proofs signed by the artist. The image sizes range from 7 to 17 inches and designs for future editions can be seen on the two-dimensional page of this website. Each print was signed by the artist and has its edition written on the back.

Star Series - Evening, serigraphic print, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

Take a look at the Digital and Serigraphic Print pages on this website and you may find the perfect print or prints to add a meaningful presence to your space.

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio

---

National Association of Women Artists - NYC

Kathleen was inducted into the National Association of Women Artists on November 15th. She was juried into their membership on the strength of her Works on Paper earlier in the year and now it is official. Kathleen is honored to be part of this organization due to their history and current mission as stated on their website.

The Mission of the National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is to foster and promote awareness of, and interest in, visual art created by women in the United States.

Purpose

The Association promotes culture and education in the visual arts through exhibitions of its members’ works, educational programs, scholarships, awards, its historical archive and other appropriate means.

While encouraging contemporary and emerging artists, the Association honors and continues the long and important contribution of women to the history of American culture and art.

 NAWA history is presented below.

To create greater opportunity for professional women artists in a male-dominated art world, on January 31, 1889, five innovative women, Anita C. Ashley, Adele Frances Bedell, Elizabeth S. Cheever, Grace Fitz-Randolph and Edith Mitchill Prellwitz met to discuss the formation of a women’s art organization. In an era when women artists were associated primarily with crafts and decorative arts, the founders of NAWA envisioned an organization which would promote higher standards for women artists and provide them with the opportunity to exhibit their work.

The history of NAWA is a testament to the strength and resilience of a group of strong women who would not accept being shut out of the art salons, galleries and art exhibitions open to male artists during the 19th century. Their founding of the organization proves that, despite adversity and discrimination – which many feel extends to this day — women are an integral and valuable part of the arts community.

From the onset, the annual exhibitions of the women’s Art Club were a great success, attracting the participation of women artists such as Mary Cassatt, Suzanne Valadon, Rosa Bonheur and Cecelia Beaux. As the organization grew, its membership included prominent artists like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Over the years the organization attracted many talented members who later achieved great recognition for their work. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney established the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City. Anna Hyatt Huntington created the sculpture museum Brookgreen Gardens/ in South Carolina.

Many members and supporters have exhibited in major museums and have taken their rightful place among the recognized artists of their time. Louise Nevelson, Malvina Hoffman, Cleo Hartwig, Minna Citron, Nell Blaine, Dorothy Dehner, Alice Neel, Marisol, Pat Adams, Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Janet Fish and Audrey Flack, and other contemporary talented artists joined the organization making NAWA valid force in its time.

NAWA members represent all areas of the visual arts including painting, sculpture, encaustic photography, print-making,video art, installations and mixed media. The benefits of membership are many, including a substantial Awards program, the opportunity to display artwork throughout the U.S. in our Exhibitions program, and inclusion in NAWA’s Annual Catalog.

Through NAWA’s exhibitions, educational programs, events and archive, the Association fosters awareness of the monumental contribution of women to the history of American Culture and Art. The organization is inclusive and serves professional women visual artists of all backgrounds and traditions that are at least 18 years of age and U .S. citizens or permanent residents.

THE NAWA PERMANENT COLLECTION

The NAWA permanent collection was established under the leadership of Liana Moonie in 1991. Housed at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the NAWA collection contains the work of artists dating from the organization’s earliest days to the present. Parts of the collection are continually on view at the museum and special exhibitions were created under the guidance of Jeffrey Wechsler.

With a long line of very talented women artists to guide her, Kathleen hopes to continue to develop her work so it is an inspiration to future artists as historic artists’ work has been to her.

Zimmerman Fine Art Studio

---

Cosmic Cow

     Cosmic Series was created after two inspirational events, a trip to Thailand where Kathleen encountered a lovely mud encrusted cow and a series of podcasts concerning the latest theories about the universe aired in which Kathleen listened to. The cow inspired Kathleen by its shear aesthetic beauty and by the fact that it just happened to look up at Kathleen in the most endearing way. This cow seemed to embody the warmth and tenderness that have made many cultures consider cows sacred. In Vedic literature, the cow is a symbol of abundance and fertility representing both the earth and the sky. To Hindus and Buddhists, cows symbolize patience and holiness and are considered India's most sacred animal. The podcasts inspired Kathleen by providing her with information she could grasp about the nature of light and dark matter, the relationship between space and time as well as the bazaar behavior between matter and antimatter. Both these events caused Kathleen to begin a series of drawings using the cow to communicate these three different aspects of our world. They became her Cosmic Series, using the well-known term, each titled to go along with the idea behind it. Thus LightDark, SpaceTime and MatterAntimatter came into existence.

Cosmic Series- LightDark, digital archival print, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

     LightDark was the first of these three drawings and is shown above. It was the basis for serigraphic print that was just printed at Modern Multiples in Los Angeles, California. In both Kathleen's digital archival and serigraphic prints, she added a block of yellow ink to visually portray the notion of enlightenment that goes along with this series' overall meaning. While LightDark is a portrait; it goes beyond illustrating the particular cow that Kathleen saw but tries to capture the essence of cows in general. By the use of contrasts, waves and a variety of tones as well as the illusion to the starry night sky and the bright day sky, this work of art is meant to communicate a sense of the nature of light and dark matter that makes up our world. 

Cosmic Series - LightDark, design for serigraphic print, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

     Above is an image of the digital archival print of LightDark. The serigraphic print's image size is 14 x 18 inches centered on a piece of 22 x 26 inch Coventry Rag paper. It is too big to be scanned at Zimmerman Fine Art Studio so is not shown here but it will be in exhibition soon. We will update this post with the details of where and when. Kathleen is currently refining the scans of SpaceTime and MatterAntimatter so that she can produce serigraphs of them as well. As soon as SpaceTime and MatterAntimatter are finished we will post them on this blog.     

Cosmic Series - SpaceTime, digital archival print, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

Cosmic Series - SpaceTime, design for serigraph, copyrighted by Kathleen Zimmerman

---

True

True Series takes a look at three different aspects of a male/female relationship in Balance, YinYang and Double Happiness using the human figure, symbols and nature.

In Balance, Kathleen uses nude male and female figures overlying a triangle and inverted triangle surrounded by clouds to communicate nature's inherent balance between the sexes in the natural world. 

In YinYang, Kathleen uses interlocking male and female heads inscribed with the sun and the moon surrounded by urban and rural landscapes to communicate the different yet complementary roles that a couple may take on to live in today's world.

In Double Happiness, Kathleen uses nude male and female figures overlying a Chinese symbol and a heart shaped cloud, along with a pair of birds in various caring acts, to communicate the stages of life and love that a couple goes through in a long term relationship. 

While all these works show the male and female relationship from different perspectives, the common theme is the complementary aspect and the equality of the sexes. While this equality has been denied through most of human history, in the natural world this balance has always been present.

---