Grace Bakst-Wapner
Grace Bakst-Wapner, currently showing a new series of beautifully textured two-dimensional works at SUNY-Ulster’s Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery in Stone Ridge through early November, has a feminine elegance about her art – be it sculptural ceramics or calligraphic paintings – that lends the subtleties with which she works an almost epic air. Furthermore, her creativity’s always shifting, growing, reacting to the complexities of the world around, while also addressing the deepest of personal and spiritual challenges.
“Its Minimalism asks us to look hard and fall into the color and materiality of what might be termed ‘flat sculpture,’” she says of her new two-dimensional explorations of tonal and textural juxtapositions. This is work that demands attention – with a whisper.
The exhibition opens on Thursday, October 9 at 7 p.m. with a slide lecture and dialogue with curator/author/educator/artist Linda Weintraub in the College Lounge, and runs until November 7.
Grace Bakst-Wapner opening reception/slideshow/lecture, Thursday, October 9, 7 p.m., through November 7, Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery, SUNY-Ulster, 491 Cottekill Road, Stone Ridge; (845) 687-5113; www.sunyulster.edu.
“Grace Bakst-Wapner, currently showing a new series of beautifully textured two-dimensional works at SUNY-Ulster’s Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery in Stone Ridge through early November,”
I was privileged to visit the artist’s studio shortly before this show and can urge everyone to go to the gallery and linger amidst these wonderful sculptural textured hangings. The words of the critic above–“epic,” “subtle,” “elegant,” “spiritual,” and “challenging” — are appropriate. Bill Broder