New Exhibit Open February 17 to May 7
The San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) will reopen with highly anticipated exhibitions in all three galleries. 2018 THE FEMALE GAZE The Woman as Visionary and Creator will open February 17, 2018 and run through May 7, 2018. Exhibitions are MASRICANI by Kasem, Through My Lens by Imogen Cunningham and SUBSTRATE: underlying currents by Singleton, Susol and Alex-Glasser.
Masricani
MASRICANI’s Yasmine K. Kasem is the artist of MASRICANI. As an American-Egyptian sculptor, Kasem creates works that address the perception of identity through transcultural eyes. Her work explores the social stigma and the issues that the Middle Eastern and the Western women share. Her work is a statement of pride as an Egyptian Muslim woman and a means to claim her cultural identity while living in America. In her own words, “Masricani means Egyptian – American, a combination of the words in Arabic, uniting them into one–both, but not wholly either.” MASRICANI gives way to solid ground for a person that is both Egyptian and American. Visitors to MASRICANI will encounter scenes from Yasmine K. Kasem’s memory on the streets of an Egyptian village.
Through My Lens
THROUGH MY LENS by Imogen Cunningham is an exhibition by world renown Pacific Northwest photographer Imogen Cunningham brought to the SJIMA by the Imogen Cunningham Trust and its director, San Juan Islands resident Meg Partridge, Cunningham’s grand daughter and an award winning documentary filmmaker. Cunningham’s Female Gaze is viewed through her eyes as a mother, an artist, a wife, and a lover.
“I have a formula for how to make a good photograph; I think that in order to make a good photograph, you have to be enthusiastic. That is, you have to think about it, like a poet would. And there are many choices, at that.”- Imogen Cunningham
This exhibition showcases photographs from her seven-decade photographic career which began in 1901, at the age of eighteen, after Cunningham bought her first camera. She rose to be a major figure in 20th-century American photography. Cunningham was a co-founder of Group f.64, joining forces with Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and other San Francisco Bay Area photographers who shared an aesthetic of sharply-focused images and natural subjects. Cunningham was the first woman to photograph the male nude and was openly criticized as indelicate. Imogen Cunningham continues to influence female photographers for generations who use passion and intuition as guides for their creativity with commitment to portraiture and pictorial work.
Substrate
SUBSTRATE: underlying currents by Susan Singleton, Kandis Susol and Hannah Alex-Glasser features poetic interpretations of natural forms in paper, wax, ink and ceramics. A conversation between the three artists lead way to tangible harmony within the works which inspired the artists to present the art together as a three-part voice. The artists believe their work delivers a counterbalancing voice, mixed with different levels of environment indicative of their Northwest area, and female endeavors of clay, paper, sewing, and wax. Singleton, Susol and Alex-Glasser present this work as the cumulation of love, grief and healing for a beautiful, pain-filled world.
The SJIMA is located at 540 Spring Street in Friday Harbor, WA. Admission is free for all members and children 18 years and younger are free. Mondays are Pay What You Can days at the SJIMA. Adults are $10, and hours are Friday to Monday, 11 am to 5 pm. After May 1, summer hours begin and the gallery is open Thursday to Monday, 11 am to 5 pm. For 2018, the museum is adhering to the theme The Female Gaze with focus on a group of artists who bring a feminine perspective to their art and our viewing experience.
