Sitting at a small table nestled in the back of the bustling Fuel Coffee Shop in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, artist/activist Gabrielle Senza’s short hair—currently a deep, vibrant auburn—complements her lightly flushed cheeks and burnt-rose-tinted lips. Her dark blue nail polish matches the ink of her pen as she alternates between doodling and carefully illustrating components of her past and upcoming art projects while she talks about her life. She runs the pen back over the lines of an upside-down bud shape she drew moments before, a shape she says originated with her son, Matteo, describing how it made its way into her series of Survival Drawings and that it will be at the heart of a new series of sculptures she is working on now.

At just forty-three years old, Senza has already had a life full of experiences: a widely popular gallery, a successful painting career, and two intimate activism projects, but at the moment she’s slowing down to make more time for her art. Senza’s roster of projects is as lengthy as it is passionate.  

Needing to find balance, a few months ago she decided to reinvigorate the passion that started it all: art-making. In December, Senza closed the doors of her popular Great Barrington gallery/performance/studio space, the Berkshire Art Kitchen (BAK), with a concert performance by her band, 8 Foot River. She’s moving into what she describes as a “very raw” live-work space in Great Barrington, but it’s a space of her own, where once again she intends to focus more closely on her painting and sculpture.

Though she’s been making art since childhood, Senza began concentrating on it fully once she moved to the Berkshires in 1985 from her home state of New Hampshire, after travelling for about a year in Europe and Central America. While employed as a decorative painter she learned how to work with the medium in nontraditional ways, to combine more skillfully the physical materials with her artistic vision.

In 1991 Senza embarked on a road trip through industrial America, collecting photographs of the contrasting landscape as well as physical remnants of various industries such as rundown buildings, lone water towers, and distant power lines. Once back in the Berkshires, she wiped all color from her photographs and referred to them as she began painting the industrial terrain in her own color schemes. With acid-yellow skies behind looming structures and desolate train tracks, Senza transposed these images onto scrap metal gathered during her journey. This became her first major series, which was exhibited at the SoHo gallery OK Harris before being spotted—and purchased—by art collectors from across the country.

“We were immediately enchanted,” says OK Harris associate director Ethan Karp, adding that when Senza brought her art to the gallery in the early 1990s, he saw merit in it immediately. “It was pastoral and industrial at the same time,” he says. Senza’s juxtaposition of the poetry of the scene with the rawness of the material was impressive.

“I always go to nature for comfort,” Senza muses as she describes how the manufactured elements were eventually phased out of her industrial landscapes, leading her into a new phase of painting. “I think I was recognizing that the landscape does speak to me,” Senza says of that transition, “and I wanted to honor that.”

In those industrial landscapes, which depict what Senza perceived as the demise of each town, scrap metal is the surface for the paintings. “I was too intimidated by the plain white canvas,” she asserts. As Senza shifted to more placid landscapes, however, she opted for wood or canvas washed in yellow. Hazy and glowing with golden hues and soft tree lines, these landscapes have been immensely popular with both galleries and collectors. Though she first began painting them in 1994, she gradually stopped producing them several years later despite demand. “I go through these periods where I actually can’t paint them,” she says, revealing a deep, emotional connection with her art. After the death of her mother in 2004, Senza said she returned to landscapes—though now she only works on them (chipping away at a waiting list) intermittently.

Barbara O’Brien, now curator at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri, first met Senza at Spazi Contemporary Art, a Housatonic, Massachusetts, gallery Senza co-owned from 1989 to 1997 with her then-husband, Richard Britell. “She’s very aware of her time and place,” O’Brien states, adding that changes in direction are crucial for Senza, “not a ninety-degree change, but a slight change.” O’Brien also notes that Senza could have had a “Gabrielle Senza style,” defined by her early industrial art, “but she’s not complacent in that way.”

Senza closed Spazi after nearly ten years, and, having divorced, she retreated to Rome. “I just went there to paint,” Senza reflects. She intended to hang out for just a couple of months, but ended up staying for about a year. During her time in Italy, Senza once again strayed from her previous artistic themes. After completing a few more landscapes, she began some extremely introspective projects, including a series of nine-by-twelve-inch oil paintings on tracing paper called Seeing Red. She describes them as acting as a journal or sketchbook (though she notes she’s never been a fan of sketchbooks in general). The vivid red paint saturates the delicate tracing paper, bringing an energy to Senza’s observations and thoughts about Italy, Rome, love, hate, and the cruelty that often can be found in love. Incorporating imaginative objects and images tinged with words, like the sweeping partial silhouette of a cello with the words, “you are my violincello,” or a deep-red hand that melts away to the bottom of the page, these paintings differed vastly from Senza’s previous works, serving more as landscapes of her inner self.

Having known Senza for nearly twenty years now, and seeing the numerous transitions in her work, O’Brien describes these changes as variations on Senza’s life as a whole, a visual autobiography. “She lets the activities and experiences of her life be refracted through her art.”

In 2001, Senza’s artistic activism revealed a personal struggle. A few years earlier she had come to terms with childhood sexual abuse and, fearing for her family, revealed her long-kept secret to them. Later, a group discussion led her to realize it was an issue more prevalent than she’d thought, and from that came the beginning of a provocative and ongoing new work. A local artists’ exhibit at the meeting house in New Marlborough, Massachusetts, gave Senza the space she needed. She displayed a collection of pieces there, including an installation of five thousand eggs spread across the wood floor—one of them painted vibrant red. On the wall behind these she stretched a scroll with the words, “I must be invisible,” repeated along its length. A third component, with which she struggled greatly, was a second scroll, which was set on a table with a pen. On it, Senza wrote out her personal secret as well as instructions inviting others to share their own.
“The practice of her art is very socially engaged,” O’Brien says. Indeed, her identity as a citizen and an artist are intertwined.

“The scroll made me realize how grateful people were for being able to share that information,” Senza notes. She laughs quietly at her initial hesitancy—and almost restraint—about revealing her secret on the scroll. Now, the Collaborative Revelations Scroll stretches approximately eight feet, flooded with the handwritten burdens released by countless others. The piece has transitioned into its own initiative, the Red Collaborative, which Senza has exhibited around the country, including at a V-Day (Eve Ensler’s initiative to end violence against women and girls) anniversary rally and the Amnesty International Human Rights Arts Festival.

“The important thing is that the dialogue happens,” Senza asserts. Even more proactive is Senza’s other major cause, Walk Unafraid, which she began in 2003. “It’s not particularly fun, but I’m really passionate about it,” she says of the somber theme of the organization, which raises awareness about human rights. Walk Unafraid invites communities to take part in the creation of public-art installations comprised of visually compelling, re-created crime scenes, where body outlines and caution tape pay tribute to victims, offering solutions and empowering phrases. Ultimately, viewers share experiences to help others recognize and prevent physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

“It’s really important for people to be engaged,” Senza notes. “It’s so much more meaningful.” Recently she has been working on getting Walk Unafraid kits to schools, just another way of reaching out and gathering people together in the community.

In February 2010, Senza, a cellist and keyboardist, teamed up with singer-songwriters Glenn Geiger and Steve Dietmann and drummer-bassist Steve Praus to form 8 Foot River, which blends folk, rock, jazz, and improvisation into melodious original compositions. The band has been performing monthly gigs around the area—including the final performance at the Berkshire Art Kitchen.

“It was not something I expected,” she says of shuttering BAK, which she ran for two years. She estimates that she had been devoting almost 80 percent of her time to BAK, promoting local artists by showing their work, offering workshops, and consulting—which left little time for her own art. She plans to continue reaching out to artists and musicians through consultation and mentorship as well as continuing to curate and write. “It could be anywhere,” she notes of the adaptability of the concept.

“All of the aspects of her life—her art, her activism, her family—are these intersecting circles of activity,” O’Brien reflects. “She’s never satisfied, always challenging her practice.”

“It’s time to create a less-public life,” Senza ponders, running her blue pen over her napkin art again. She intends to focus more closely on Matteo, 12, whom she describes as an inspiration—creative, perceptive, and with a keen aesthetic sense. He’ll also be teaching her to skateboard, she says, laughing youthfully. “I’m just going to go into life,” she muses, explaining that she’s never shied away from new things, always exploring and studying the unfamiliar. Despite retreating to a more private studio, Senza’s free spirit still shines.

“Everyone seems to think there are set ways to do things,” Senza reflects. “I kind of always go alternate routes.” [FEB/MAR 2011]

Alison McGee took sculpture and metalworking classes in high school and painting courses in college, but most recently has been focusing her camera lens.

THE GOODS

Gabrielle Senza
Great Barrington, Mass.
413.717.0031

8 Foot River

The Red Collaborative

Walk Unafraid

There are people you think must secretly be twins or triplets living as one person because they seem to accomplish too much and appear in too many places for a single human being. Great Barrington-based artist Gabrielle Senza (who joined Assets for Artists in 2009) is such a person. . . [Read more here.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Great Barrington, MA

August 11th marks the premier showing of the newest painting in Gabrielle Senza’s “Promise of Light” series at the Kasten Fine Art Gallery in Great Barrington, MA. On view through October 1, “The Promise of Light, X” will be unveiled August 11th, with a public reception on Saturday from 4 – 6pm.

The 6 x 10 foot oil painting was recently completed by the Berkshire based artist in her Great Barrington, Massachusetts studio. “Young trees reflecting in a crisp, calm pond are surrounded by a brilliant golden glow. The morning grove sits quietly just in front of a receding horizon of trees, behind which, the sun promises to warm its way through to a dazzling new day,” writes Senza of the tenth painting in the series of landscapes.

The Promise of Light series was started in 2006, when Senza was commissioned to create a 4 x 12 foot painting of the Catskill Mountains for the Philmont, NY restaurant, Local 111. “The quality of light and its effect on the distant views inspired a whole new realm to explore,” states Senza. “Mountains, rivers and trees all became actors in the play that came to life on the canvas, inspiring new compositions.”

The painting will be unveiled during a public reception on Saturday, August 11th at 4pm and will remain on view at the gallery through October 1. Gallery Hours are 11 – 4 Sunday thru Friday; 10 – 4 on Saturday; and by appointment.

Call 413.528.3300 for more information. To see more work by Gabrielle Senza visit www.kastenfineart.com

Recently touted as “The Best Young Artist in the Berkshires” in Alan Chartock’s “I Publius” Berkshire Eagle column, Gabrielle Senza, 39 was born in the southwest and raised in New Hampshire in a little town near Dartmouth College. “Although I started drawing when I was really little and was often praised for my ability, I was terrified to actually sign up for any real art classes.” Senza continues, “I had a disastrous experience when I first decided to try painting. I only had watercolors at the time, and when I attempted to do what I’d just watched an oil painter do, I completely failed. It was about the most excruciating experience I ever had. I swore I’d never touch paint again! It’s pretty ironic, isn’t it?”

Senza spent her senior year of high school as an exchange student in Denmark. After graduation, she decided to travel through Europe and “jump into life” instead of going to college. She landed in the Berkshires in 1985 and rented her first studio at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield. Within a couple of years, Senza had learned how to manipulate paint for decorative and trompe l’oeil purposes. It wasn’t long before she ventured to find her own creative voice through paint. In 1991, at the age of 24 she had her first solo show in New York City at the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo and her professional career was launched.

Today, Gabrielle Senza is internationally recognized as an artist, educator, curator, and writer. She exhibits widely and has artwork in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, Fidelity Investments, JP Morgan Chase, Paine Webber, Lifetime Entertainment, and in private collections around the world. Known as one of the country’s preeminent environmental artists, Senza’s work has toured cities in the notable “Toxic Landscapes” exhibition organized in 2001 by the Puffin Foundation. She has designed and taught art courses at Mass MoCA, Cooper Union and Simon’s Rock College of Bard. She has been very active in community service and a pivotal figure in the artistic community, opening the first alternative contemporary art venue known as SPAZI Contemporary Art in 1989. In 1997 Senza took a year off to live in Rome Italy where she enjoyed a hiatus from her life and responsibilities in the Berkshires, and happened to meet Guido Baratta, the father of her eight year old son, Matteo Baratta-Senza. Gabrielle Senza is the founder and Executive Director of Red Collaborative, the creative public arts initiative that takes on important and often overlooked political and social issues both locally and nationally.

Senza has plans to release a limited edition giclée print featuring one of the earlier paintings from the series, “The Promise of Light II”. The prints will be available this month at Kasten Fine Art and online at www.gabriellesenza.blogspot.com. The artist is releasing the print in two sizes. A large print featuring a 20 x 40 inch image of the second painting in the series, in an edition of 20 prints, retailing for $2,500 each; and a smaller print, measuring 11 x 22 inches in an edition of 50, available for $1,000 each. Each print will be hand signed and numbered by the artist. Gabrielle Senza’s collaborators on the project are photographer Gregory Cherin and master printer Fred Collins of Berkshire Digital.

For more information, call 413.528.3300 or visit www.kastenfineart.com

# # #

I traced raccoon tracks in the sand along the water’s edge

And drank colors from the sky.

Nature has been my mother and my teacher.

Through Nature I found Art.

Through Art, I found Salvation.

- Gabrielle Senza

© 2005

If you have any visuals or information of the artist’s work, we urge you to contact us at 413.528.3917 or email us at ecoartgirl@mac.com.

Great Barrington, MA

Simon’s Rock College of Bard will host “MEDITATIONS WITH FIRE: The Torched Linen Paintings of Gabrielle Senza” at the Library Atrium Gallery from 22 January through 17 March, 2007. Featuring work created in the early 1990′s, Ms. Senza states, “The torched linen series was started as a counterpoint to the series of highly representational industrial landscape paintings I was in the process of creating for a solo show near Detroit back in 1993. Rendering architectural structures in oil paint on steel was very demanding, and the need for a looser form of creative expression was great.

“Experimenting with the basic tools of a plumber (propane torch, stiff aluminum brush and a tin of soldering flux), I blindly engaged in intuitive mark making on torn bits of raw linen. The flux is colorless. The brush is stiff. The image comes to life under the torch. Verging on instant annihilation, the flames give little latitude for deliberation.

“Working with fire gave me an experience unlike anything I’d ever done before. Fire is ultra-life; Alchemy, magic, source, transmutation, destruction, regeneration, life and death. It created a realm of exploration that felt tribal, primitive, primordial: a place for inner exploration and release.”

Purchased from SPAZI Contemporary Art, Housatonic, MA
1996

JMW Consultants, Corporate Office, Stamford, CT
c93-04OV4800CV12500

. . . . . . . . . .

South of Chicago, North of Joliet
© Gabrielle Senza 1993
oil on oxidized steel
46 x 54 inches
Signed: Lower Right

Purchased from SPAZI Contemporary Art, Housatonic, MA
1996

JMW Consultants, Corporate Office, Stamford, CT
c93-02OV4800CV12500

. . . . . . . . . .

Sogni d’Italia
© Gabrielle Senza 1996
oil on prepared paper
36 x 26 inches
Signed: Lower Right

Purchased from SPAZI Contemporary Art, Housatonic, MA
1996

JMW Consultants, Corporate Office, Stamford, CT
c92-04OV1200CV2500

. . . . . . . . . .

Ste. Catherine Industrial Park
© Gabrielle Senza 1992
charcoal and mixed media on paper mounted to linen
40 x 78 inches
Signed: Lower Right

Purchased from OK Harris Gallery, New York
1992

Lifetime Entertainment, Corporate Office, New York, NY

c92-04OV4800CV12500

. . . . . . . . . .

9 x 12 inches, digitally printed on acetate interleaved with heavyweight paper and museum board covers, hand bound with satin ribbon
Signed and numbered by the artist
Edition: 30

Gift
1998

Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami, FL

. . . . . . . . . .