New exhibits meld nature and humanity

The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA) invites the public to two upcoming exhibitions in its galleries, beginning with an opening reception this Saturday.

The visual language of paper will adorn the Alliance Gallery, while the language of abstraction will fill the Loft Gallery. “In the Absence of Gravity and Other Restraints” by Samuelle Green and “Tuning Compositional Strategies” by Kathleen Anderson will be on view through Sept. 19 and are free and open to the public.

Samuelle Green

Beloved for her walk-through “Paper Caves” installation in Honesdale, Samuelle Green’s body of multidisciplinary work all has a common thread. Her paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations reference the interaction between human-made and non-human visual languages. At times the encounters are contentious and at other times symbiotic. Many of her works are stills that simultaneously reflect the processes of decay and those of luscious growth.

Through mark making or the use of repurposing discarded materials (like paper), Green seeks to highlight the forms and details of nature that are frequently overlooked and under-appreciated. She starts with rigid structures or self-imposed parameters representing metaphorical frameworks of natural laws. She then creates elements that repeat and propagate until they give way to organic forms free of both their literal and non-material scaffolds.

Green was raised in rural Pennsylvania and attended Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and Parsons School of Design in New York. After graduation she continued to live and work in Brooklyn before renovating an 1800s building into a studio and art space in her hometown in Pennsylvania.

To learn more about Green, visit samuellegreen.com.

Kathleen Anderson

Kathleen Anderson is an artist, drummer, and certified Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner living and working in upstate New York in a homemade house from reclaimed materials. Her work encompasses drawing, sculpture, sound, bodywork and earth tuning. Her work has been exhibited at numerous venues including the Bronx Museum of Art, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Oberlin College, Brown University, and Dorsky Museum at SUNY-New Paltz.

“Tuning Compositional Strategies” explores the language of abstraction as a means of distilling the intersections of art, energy healing modalities, percussive patterns and sound into a visual investigation of the body’s rhythms and alignment. Drawing from a range of sources, the physio-philosophy of Jin Shin Jyutsu, Brazilian Candomblé drumming, neural pathways, meridian points, circuitry, pulses, particles, networks, Anderson explores materials, primarily copper, for conductive and therapeutic qualities. Referencing the spine, nervous system and right/left polarities of the body, the vibratory patterns interact as a kind of radiation from within the object, exploring how the body unifies and balances itself.

To learn more about Anderson, visit kathleenanderson.nets.

Recital

In conjunction with the exhibition, DVAA will present a free live music performance on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 2 p.m. in the Gloria Krause Recital Hall, featuring an improvisational trio with Hudson Valley musicians singer/composer Timothy Hill, percussionist Evry Mann, and multi-instrumentalist sound healer Thomas Workman from the band Levanta.

The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance is located at 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, N.Y. Walk-ins are welcome (no advance registration is required for these shows). Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment.

For more information, visit delawarevalleyartsalliance.org or call 845-252-7576.