The Woodmere Art Museum announces Force of Nature on view February 17, 2012 – April 22, 2012.
Force of Nature features two new exhibitions inspired by the natural world. Elaine Kurtz: A Retrospective provides a closer look at one of Philadelphia’s great woman artists, and Elemental explores the deep structures of nature that Kurtz and other local artists have used as a language of form.
Elaine Kurtz: A Retrospective
Elaine Kurtz’s works from the 1970s are geometric abstractions that explore perception, optical effects, and the illusions of color. With her Alluvial paintings from the 1990s, Kurtz began creating dense canvases with tumultuous surfaces, conveying the energy and forces of nature. Loaded with layers of paint, sand, mud, pulverized mica and quartz, Kurtz’s works shimmer and possess an intense physicality. (Image: Elaine Kurtz, 1928-2003. Circles & Diamonds, c. 1970. Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 37 in. Collection of Jerome Kurtz.)
Elemental: Nature as Language in the Works of Philadelphia Artists
Elemental brings together works by Philadelphia artists for whom nature is an inspiration. Elegant, minimal, controlled, and sometimes austere, the works of art in the exhibition offer a variety of potent evocations of the natural world. Artists include Edna Andrade, Steven Baris, Helen Bershad, Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz, Astrid Bowlby, Frank Bramblett, Diane Burko, Thomas Chimes, Michael Ciervo, Murray Dessner, Stephen Estock, Kevin Finklea, John Formicola, Neysa Grassi, Ana B. Hernandez, Charles Kaprelian, Elaine Kurtz, Samantha Mitchell, Elizabeth Osborne, Keith Ragone, Warren Rohrer, Kevin Strickland, and Dina Wind. – www.woodmereartmuseum.org