The Lightness of Bearing
The Lightness of Bearing
The Lightness of Bearing
On view September 5 - October 28, 2023
The Lightness of Bearing is a selection of works by Virginia Maksymowicz that considers the symbolic resilience and strength of the female figure in art and architecture by blending the mythology of caryatids, (architectural columns of women effortlessly bearing the weight of massive architectural structures) with images of women from indigenous and ethnic cultures bearing the weight of ritualistic traditions.
Enjoy this walkthrough created by the artist:
Virginia Maksymowicz and the ‘Lightness of Bearing’ at Rowan University Art Gallery, Artblog
The Lightness of Bearing, episode 9/16/23, Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM
Artist Statement
My artwork in recent years has followed a complex journey through architecture and figurative elements. I am interested in the metaphorical implications of the female body, especially when tied to place: buildings, fountains and other structures. The Erechtheion caryatids and the cult of Demeter, with their legacy in architectural ornamentation, continue to symbolically undergird the material and social character of human society, and the role women play in it. I do not aim to “prove” the connections I make through historical methodology. Instead, as a visual artist, I want to give them tangible form so that they can literally be seen from a new perspective.
The title of this exhibition, The Lightness of Bearing, was chosen specifically because of its play on words, which references feminist interpretations of architecture – in particular the Erechtheion caryatids. Although these female figures function as weight-bearing columns, they appear to perform their eternal duty without effort. This architectural form is a perfect metaphor for addressing the significance and power of women as structural supports for society.
In Comparisons, seven sets of paired images interleave architectural details with the bodies of women from a variety of ethnic traditions. Caryatids in Five Books displays photographic images of caryatids and verses from a poem by Romanian poet, Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu. Panis Angelicus blends the tangible with the ineffable, the material with the spiritual, and the architectural with the metaphorical. Zhyttya, which in Ukrainian means life, references classical architecture, Demeter and Persephone, and the traditional Christmas didukh in the eternal hope for spring. Throughout the show myth becomes matter, through the overlay of imagery.
Bearers and Mascarons present other links between the human body and architecture. “Mascaron” — a word that literally means “big mask” — is the architectural term for an ornamental face peering from the façade of a building. These faces are usually, although not always, human, and sometimes are grotesque. But rather than scaring us away, these mascarons seem to be protecting us. During the initial days of the COVID pandemic, I found myself drawn to, and drawing, these figures, relying upon a totally unexpected type of mask.
The Architecture of Memory references another architectural concept, which posits that rooms can function as receptacles of memory. This new installation, made specifically for the Rowan University Art Gallery, employs casts of architectural molding from one of the rooms in Hollybush. It frames the memory of Josephine Allen Whitney, who gave birth to seven children in that house, but about whom history remembers very little.
The Garden of Earthly Delights was made for an upper room at the Boland Gallery at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. The gallery’s walls were framed by architectural molding. Working within those constraints, I created a series of festoon-like wreaths encircling a woman’s face. The faces have fruits or vegetables forced into their mouths, with words underneath that are used to describe the characteristics of those fruits . . . or, allegorically, that are often used to describe the characteristics of women.
Artist Biography
Virginia Maksymowicz was born in 1952 in Brooklyn, NY, and now lives in Philadelphia, PA. She received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (1973) and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego (1977).
Upon returning to New York, Maksymowicz spent two years working under the auspices of the Cultural Council Foundation’s CETA Artists Project (1978-79), a federally-funded program that employed 10,000 artists nationwide (the same number as the WPA’s Federal Art Project).
She has exhibited her work at the Franklin Furnace, Alternative Museum, the Elizabeth Foundation and Grey Gallery in New York City; the Mitchell Museum in Illinois; the Michener and Woodmere Museums in Pennsylvania; and in college, university, and nonprofit galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad.
She is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in sculpture (1984), and over the years has been honored with other grants and awards. Her artwork has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, the New York Times, New York Newsday, the New Art Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her series, The History of Art, appears on the cover of The Female Body, published by the University of Michigan Press.
She has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome (2006; 2012; 2014), an artist-in-residence at the Powel House Museum in Philadelphia (2006-07), and a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center (2007).
Maksymowicz is a Professor Emerita of Art, Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.