IN THE BOROWSKY GALLERY: CORPOREAL

Residence Pods

Body Awareness a review by Victoria Donohoe

Philadelphia Inquirer  Feb 10, 2012

“Corporeal,” the five-person sculpture show at the Gershman Y by alumni fellows of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, has a lot going for it. The poles of the exhibit belong to Ava Blitz and Maria Anasazi. Blitz, a “straight” sculptor, achieves chunky elegance with her limestone and alabaster pieces – her strong, squat Sphinx, and her somewhat personalized female body parts (lips, breasts). Brooke Hine’s ceramics more matter-of-factly look inside the human body, shaping a heart and intestines, while Leslie Speicher’s surprise is an evening dress, its pretty fabric printed with a blood-cell pattern.

Susan Benarcik, obviously gifted both in taste and dexterity, and versed in using plant materials, makes a key contribution. Yet the artist embodying the show’s theme best is resourceful Anasazi, with several works using found objects – a spine attached to lots of books, pieces of felt shaped like a pair of boots and pierced by hundreds of steel nails. This show has a solid, if not wildly inventive, premise.

Exhibition dates: January 6 – February 19, 2012
The Gershman YMCA
401 South Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Gallery hours: Monday- Sunday, 9 A.M.-5 P.M.
www.gershmanY.org

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