Gabrielle Senza

Terra Temporalis 3

We Can Do It! — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 06:01:47 +0000

Here’s a peak at the 3rd Terra Temporalis installation. . . This one was commissioned by Jim Benson for his new wine bar in Pittsfield, MA and will be on view at the Y Bar for one year. At the end of 2012 the drawing will be painted out and Gabrielle Senza will create another temporary installation in the space.

Terra Temporalis 2

We Can Do It! — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:13:57 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

This is the second in the “Terra Temporalis” series of temporary wall drawings – on view at the Sanford Smith Gallery in Great Barrington, MA from October 13 through the end of December 2011.

Gabrielle Senza gets her hands dirty.

We Can Do It! — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:41:47 +0000

For proof, see Jeremy D. Goodwin’s feature on her latest artistic endeavors in yesterday’s Berkshires Week/ Berkshire Eagle.

Drawing on the wall – Berkshire Eagle Online

Thursday November 10, 2011 PITTSFIELD — Fine art is often seen as an attempt — even if a vain one — to achieve permanence, a contribution to the artistic tradition that will influence and inspire future generations.

(Photo credit: Ben Garver)

October 13th – Terra Temporalis Opening Reception

We Can Do It! — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:38:21 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

Terra Temporalis Exhibition at Sanford Smith Gallery

We Can Do It! — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:46:56 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

October 13 – December 8, 2011

Featuring paintings, drawings, installations and a temporary wall drawing.

Sanford Smith Fine Art
13 Railroad Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230
413.528-6777
www.sanfordsmithfineart.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Sanford Smith Fine Art is pleased to present the work of Berkshire based artist Gabrielle Senza. Her ethereal landscapes and earthy installations will be featured in the gallery through December 8^th. The artist’s reception will be held October 15^th from 4-7 PM. The show “Terra Temporalis” includes a variety of themes and mediums that address a diverse range of topics from personal reflection to environmental change.

Gabrielle’s work has been shown internationally and is included in the collections of institutions such as the Whitney Museum, the MoMA (NYC) and Lifetime Entertainment among others. She has been particularly recognized for her work as an environmental artist. Gabrielle’s work was featured in a traveling group exhibition entitled “Toxic Landscapes: Artists Examine their Environment” which toured to international venues. She has taught classes for institutions such as Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Cooper Union and IS183 Art School of the Berkshires.

Gabrielle has applied her chameleonic creativity to works in a wide range of mediums including photography, painting, sculpture and installation. She explains “often an idea I need to express doesn’t work on canvas and needs to be created as an installation. The work within each series speaks the language required to convey what I’m after.” Within her wide range of medium her creative energy remains present. It is the fluidity and tenacity of the concepts she addresses that makes her pieces compelling. She addresses issues of loss, grief, reflection and always expresses a deep concern and connection with the world she lives in. In her exquisite landscapes effulgent rays of sun break through patterns of leaves to reveal a place that is safe, hopeful and somehow spiritual. As she says “the terrain I explore through my work is guided by intuition, deep listening and the connection to an emotional charge of place.” Her highly emotive work can be subtle, calming, arresting but it always remains intriguing.

Terra Temporalis: Ethereal Art at the Everhart Museum in Scranton, PA

We Can Do It! — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:39:19 +0000

TERRA TEMPORALIS is a large-scale site-specific wall drawing created with graphite powder applied directly to the 11 x 17 foot wall with my bare hands over a 12 day period in August of 2011.

The drawing will be painted out at the end of December. When informed, many museum visitors had strong visceral reactions to the idea that this work will be destroyed in a matter of months.

I ask: How is my drawing any more important than the rivers, forests and lives that are being destroyed every single day by human hands?

Planting an Idea – Feature article in the Times-Tribune

We Can Do It! — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:44:01 +0000

Planting an idea: ‘Buds, Blooms & Berries’ exhibit focuses on environment at Everhart Museum

BY CAITLIN HEANEY (STAFF WRITER)

Published: August 11, 2011

Artist Gabrielle Senza shows the powdered graphite she has applied to her hand to create a wall drawing called “Terra Temporalis” for the Everhart Museum’s latest exhibition.

Image Gallery for Planting an idea: ‘Buds, Blooms & Berries’ exhibit focuses on environment at Everhart Museum

Gabrielle Senza has created a landscape with her fingertips.

Blackened with powdered graphite, her hands swept across a white wall at the Everhart Museum on a recent afternoon, leaving behind gray streaks and blots she would shape into images of trees and plants.

Ms. Senza, of Great Barrington, Mass., spent several days earlier this month producing “Terra Temporalis,” a piece that will be featured in the museum’s latest exhibition, “Buds, Blooms & Berries: Plants in Science, Culture & Art.”

The show opens Friday and features artwork from many mediums as well as plant fossils, items from the museum’s Alfred Twining herbarium and a garden planted on the museum’s front lawn specially for the show. The exhibit will remain on display through Dec. 31.

“Terra Temporalis” marks the first time Ms. Senza has worked directly on a wall, which in this case measures 11 feet by 17 feet. She chose to use powdered graphite because she “wanted it to have more of an airy and ethereal feel.”

Temporary art

Making the piece temporary – it will be painted over when the exhibition ends – was Ms. Senza’s idea as well, and it is one she said she loves. She hopes when visitors realize the piece is temporary that anyone who might still doubt “what’s going on with our environment” starts taking it more seriously.

While it is easy for individuals to feel powerless about the environment, Ms. Senza added, she hopes people who see her work might not take the environment for granted.

As a whole, the exhibit focuses on plants and how people use them, said curator Nezka Pfeifer, who attributed the inspiration for the show to Mr. Twining’s herbarium. A botanist and associate editor of The Scranton Times, Mr. Twining donated his collection of more than 1,500 specimens to the museum in 1913.

In addition to items selected from the herbarium, the exhibit will include examples of plant fossils from the earth’s carboniferous period. Forests at that time were “extremely carbon-rich,” Ms. Pfeifer said, and their eventual fossilization created coal.

“These are some of the first evidence of plant life from 350 million years ago,” Ms. Pfeifer said.

Plant diversity

Rounding out the exhibition will be artwork and artifacts focusing on how humans use plants, such as for food, clothing or inspiration. Ms. Pfeifer also wanted to include live plants, and guests can check out a small pollinator garden planted on the museum’s front lawn.

“The idea was really to show the diversity of plants that people have harvested,” she said.

The plants range from sunflowers to cotton and attract pollinators like butterflies.

“Ideally, we’re trying to create an opportunity for people to put themselves in the shoes of being a farmer,” Ms. Pfeifer said.

Helping care for the plants were members of Laurie’s Community Garden on North Irving Avenue and Vine Street, and community artwork will be featured in an exhibit running concurrently with “Buds, Blooms & Berries.”

Focusing on seven gardeners, “Sowing Seeds in the Neighborhood: Laurie’s Community Garden” features photographs of garden plots and work the community does there.

Ideally, the new exhibits will inspire people to pay more attention to the plants around them, Ms. Pfeifer said, adding that people “take so many things for granted.”

“The idea’s to really sort of wrap their minds around plants in a new way,” she said.

Contact the writer: cheaney@timesshamrock.comIf you go

What: “Buds, Blooms & Berries: Plants in Science, Culture & Art” and “Sowing Seeds in the Neighborhood: Laurie’s Community Garden” exhibitions

Where: Everhart Museum, 1901 Mulberry St.

When: On display Friday through Dec. 31. Museum is open Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, noon to 4 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.

Admission: $5 adults, $3 seniors and students and $2 children 6 to 12. There is no fee for museum members and children 5 and younger.

Arts in Bloom

We Can Do It! — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:23:51 +0000

THE ABINGTON JOURNAL
August 10

Art is in bloom at the Everhart Museum

By Don McGlynn
Reporter / Photographer

SCRANTON - It is common for an artist’s work to be brought into the Everhart Museum, but for its new exhibit, Gabrielle Senza is doing something special, letting her work’s life cycle begin and end at the Scranton museum.

Gabrielle Senza is shown above working on a temporary installation, which will be unveiled Aug. 12, as part of “Buds, Blooms & Berries” at the Everhart Museum.

Senza is working on a temporary installation, which will be unveiled August 12, as part of “Buds, Blooms & Berries,” the museum’s newest exhibit.

The Berkshire, Massachusetts-based artist will create the work, entitled “Terra Temporalis,” on one of the gallery walls, measured at 11 by 17 feet.

“I’m doing the whole thing in graphite powder. It’s intended to be very ephemeral, kind of now you see it, now you don’t, which has a lot to do with the theme of the piece,” said Senza.

“It has to do with the temporary nature of things, specifically the environment, and how vulnerable it is.”

In the spirit of that temporary theme, the wall will be painted over when the exhibit comes to an end Dec. 31.

Senza is one of several artists included in “Buds, Blooms & Berries,” a multi-disciplinary exhibit highlighting the Everhart Museum’s scientific collections and its historic Twining Herbarium, ethnographic materials depicting plants and trees, and contemporary art reflecting how botanicals impact today’s societies and mindset will be on display.

Everhart curator Nezka Pfeifer contacted Senza about participating in the exhibit, originally looking for her to exhibit a piece of work. But the artist had other ideas.

“I said, ‘I’d love to be in the show, but actually, really, there’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and that is a temporary wall drawing and this would be, perhaps, a really nice opportunity to do that,’ and she got really excited, and the rest of the staff were into it,” said Senza.

With everyone on board, the two went to work on finding a way to finance Senza coming to Scranton to work on the temporary installation, and decided on using Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects where project creators keep complete ownership and control over their work.

Those interested are then able to donate funds to projects of their choosing.

“The Kickstarter method was very exciting, because it just gave so many people an opportunity to participate in some way,” said Senza.

“It’s such a feel-good kind of situation, it’s sort of win-win for everybody, because it’s really about community and collaboration. You don’t have to be a rich philanthropist to make something like this happen.”

Those who donated funds to the temporary installation will have the chance to view the piece beginning this week, as well as the work of contemporary artists that will also be on display.

The exhibit will also feature an outdoor Pollinator Garden with plants donated by The Lands at Hillside Farms.

In addition, the Gallery One exhibit “Sowing Seeds in the Neighborhood: Laurie’s Community Garden” will also begin on Friday. The Gallery One show will feature photos from Laurie’s Community Garden, located in Scranton and run by Shalom Scranton

For more information on “Buds, Blooms & Berries,” visit http://everhart-museum.org/.

For more information on Senza, visit http://gabriellesenza.com/.

Study for Terra Temporalis

We Can Do It! — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:57:49 +0000

I plan to create something of this nature on the 11 x 17 foot wall at the Everhart Museum in Scranton. I begin tomorrow…

Honey Moth

We Can Do It! — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:19:42 +0000

The wall colors flanking my “canvas” of Honey Moth will be Asparagus and Celery Sprig.