The Aldrich Museum
By: Anne Verhallen
A Private Viewing of Sara Cwynar’s First East Coast Solo Museum Exhibit
The Canadian born and rising contemporary photographer and artist, Sara Cwynar, shows some of her new and unseen work at her first east-coast museum exhibition at The Aldrich Museum in Connecticut.
Sara Cwynar @ The Aldrich Museum
It is Sunday just past noon when we step into a shuttle organized by The Aldrich Museum and take our seat next to renowned artist Elaine Reichek. Unaware of who we sat next to at the time, Elaine shared her story and that of other New York-based female artists of her generation. We spoke about the changes within the art-world, and the rise of female artists and artists of color. “We have always been here; the difference is people started to pay attention.” She commented on the significance of the Me Too movement and how women of her generation “just dealt with it” while being on the look out for each other. “But why should we just deal with it?”
Time flew by and before we knew it we were surrounded by the beautiful landscape of Connecticut as we entered the Museum’s driveway. After a warm welcome by the staff members of the Aldrich Museum, we were advised to visit the other exhibitions before Sara’s arrival, including a two-floor survey of works by feminist, lesbian scholar, activist and author, Harmony Hammond.
Harmony Hammond: Material Witness, Five Decades of Art @ The Aldrich Museum
Hammond is featured in three important exhibitions around the United States. Harmony Hammond: Material Witness, Five Decades of Art exhibit shows some of her most important works curated throughout multiple rooms, presenting a perfect oevre of the artist’s work. Our personal favorite, Floor Piece (1973) is considered one of her most radical pieces referring to women’s traditional arts.
Floor Piece, Harmony Hammond @ The Aldrich Museum
As we waited in the sunny sculpture garden of the museum, Sara Cwynar arrived accompanied by her gallerist Foxy Production and museum curator Amy Smith-Stewart. We follow the artist to her exhibition and are introduced to the artist’s work in an intimate space that displays two significant works on wallpaper she designed.
Artist Sara Cwynar and Curator Amy Smith-Stewart
The young artist speaks humbly about her work and gently touches upon her subject matters. Sara’s art has a clear encyclopedic aspect. She uses photographs of found images and objects from advertisements, postcards and catalogues to create colorful photographic collages and films. The works are displayed in a spacious room on the second floor of the museum. The repetition in her works, use of collected commercial materials and remodeled historical images reflect on their influence these marketing themes to infiltrate the public conscious.
Sara Cwynar @ The Aldrich Museum
Sara introduces us to her model Stacey, a close friend and model of the artist for 15 years. Stacey is carefully positioned in a way Sara believes many women have been portrayed as in the past, the pose reminding me of an odalisque woman with a soft gaze toward the camera.
Sara Cwynar @ The Aldrich Museum
Her newest flat photographic work features a different model found on an e-commerce website. She used the images from the e-com site and combines them with her own photographs of the same model, posing identical to the classic e-commerce poses. However, Sarah photographed the girl without make-up or Photoshop, in a gesture to reclaim the girl’s identity. It is clear the work comments on the endlessly-clicking consumer, with unlimited access to some version of this "modern woman" defined by today’s unattainable standards.
Sara Cwynar @ The Aldrich Museum
As she points to the wallpaper used in the first exhibition room, she smiles and explains her passion for collecting imagery and encyclopedias. The paper is a compilation of 72 famous modern paintings carefully selected by Sara from encyclopedias.
Sara Cwynar @ The Aldrich Museum
The room opens up to questions from the guests of the museum and someone points out the drop shadows left in the images and tape on the studio floor. Sara explains her love for these flaws and imperfections; she likes to leave room for error as she prefers her work to be slightly quirky and not too serious.
Sara Cwynar @ The Aldrich Museum
Besides her still-photography, her book Kitsch Encyclopedia (2013) and two short films, Cover Girl (2018) and Christina (2019), are included in the exhibition. Her video works were very popular amongst the visitors, many of them viewing the films more than once.
Within the films, Sara's talent for and use of color stands out. Her usage of color as a tool and as a subject to convey her messages lay at the forefront. Cover Girl mixes video footage of Stacey recorded in the artist’s studio with video footage recorded inside a cosmetic assembly line. The film tackles society’s change in perception of color, consumerism, sexism, beauty, desire and branding.
Sara has a bright future, and I thoroughly enjoyed her use of color to tell her story, and that of other women. Both Sara Cwynar and Harmony Hammond grab your attention and showcase what is important to women of their own generation. I highly recommend visiting The Aldrich Museum and viewing these two artists’ exhibitions.
Sara Cwynar’s ‘Gilded Age’ will be on view through November 10, 2019 at The Aldrich Museum.
The Bauhaus Spirt @ Wadsworth Atheneum
Five exhibitions to see this summer in Connecticut:
The Bauhaus Spirit at the at the Wadsworth Atheneum, opening July 13th >> See More
From Expressionism to Surrealism: Highlights of Modern Art from the Collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum, opening June 29th >> See More
In Bloom: The Botanical Painting of T. Merrill Prentice at the New Britain Museum of American Art, now on view until September 8th >> See More
Expanded Field: Photography from the Collection of the NBMAA at the New Britain Museum of American Art, opening August 2nd through September 29th >> See More
Photographs | Contemporary Art: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions at the Yale Center for British Art, opening on June 20th through September 8th >> See More