On View November 5, 2021 – January 7, 2022
New Visual Arts Exhibits at the Dairy Arts Center: “Diptych” by Keith Brenner and “Contemplation” by Belgin Yucelen, Natasha Mistry, and Paul Brokering
Opening Reception is Friday, November 5th from 5:30 – 8:00pm: Join us for the opening receptions of Diptych featuring photographs by Keith Brenner and Contemplation featuring works by Belgin Yucelen, Natasha Mistry, and Paul Brokering. Be the first to see this new exhibition and hear from the artists about their works. Refreshments will be available for purchase. This event is free and open to the public.
In the McMahon Gallery, photographer Keith Brenner will be displaying Diptych: Stories Between the Borders and Around the Edges, featuring 50 photographic works paired as diptychs. Keith says, “A diptych is two pictures telling one story …. perhaps many more. They are in a relationship offering a narrative that neither photograph can tell on its own. Stories are found between the borders and around the edges. The dual images invite contemplation, interpretation, intrigue, confusion, and an intrinsic connection, though their reality may be separated by space and time.”
This is an interactive exhibit, and Keith invites the viewer to interpret the works for themselves and asks, “What do you see?”. Viewers will be tasked to write a description of how they interpret the photographs, which will later be shared on a Zoom call during the last week of the exhibition and included in a forthcoming book.
In Contemplation, the artists works are tied together through themes of meditation, process, focus and reflection. Presented in painting, photography and printmaking, the pieces in this exhibit invite viewers to dive into them and admire their creation, and the reflective, meditative quality art can have. Not only through the process of creating, but also through the personal touch and humanity prevalent through each of the artists’ works.
In the MacMillan Family Lobby Gallery, Belgin Yucelen displays Floating Tales, a series of prints which “challenges imaginations by creating a fictional world beyond the existing, to conjure unrealized possibilities.” Also on view will be her series, Overwritten Scripts, which “emphasize the inequality that exists based on socio-cultural norms rather than Islamic principles, which regard men and women equal in humanity.” Belgin states, “Creating is a sacred call for me, a responsibility to peruse myself, to communicate my inner self and evoke a form of consciousness. The process of art making is a revelation for knowing who I am.”
On view in the Polly Addison Gallery will be Natasha Mistry’s series of circular, mica-infused oil paintings, which explores symbols that she sees during meditation. She paints gently, building shape upon pattern, her geometric precision and the iridescence of her natural materials creating a transcendent viewing experience. Natasha’s symbols evoke a sense of timelessness, acting as a visual reminder to our primal selves. Natasha says that she “paints intuitively, journeying into the wild terrain that is her unconscious imagination. She is fascinated with the process of inner investigation that arises from the act of painting.” Each painting is an invitation to gaze and enjoy a moment of peace and are best experienced over repeated viewings and longer, seated gazing.
Paul Brokering completes the exhibition with works in the Hand Rudy Gallery. A licensed architect, he aims to capture built environments in a new light by emphasizing shape, color and repeating patterns that draw the viewer away from the function of the building and pulls you into its powerful aesthetic. Paul says, “I see buildings as bold studies of artistic elements, structures our eyes might dismiss as mundane artifacts of rural life. We drive by these buildings often and seldom take the time to stop and discover the beauty of these structures that never change.”