THE ANNEX

May, 2019

Vinnie Pavao, Danielle Robbins and Barbara Trachtenberg expose the viewer to visceral expressions of form.
Universally felt emotion, process, and the nuanced experience drives each of these artists to create.
The exhibition displays two-dimensional and three-dimensional work that focuses on what it is to be human.

The ANNEX is a section of the Gallery where we spotlight new work by regional artists.

Artists’ Talk: Saturday, May 18, 2:00 p.m.

Danielle Robbins

Untitled, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

Bold, oil on canvas, 14 x 10 inches

Right There, oil on canvas, 18 x 16 inches

Of My Greedy Body, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

Lay Me, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

Danielle Robbins paints the beautiful, painful, and nuanced experiences that arise from our human connections. Her paintings start with the figure and speak to her life experiences as a person whose identity lies at the margins. She interprets the sadness, beauty, and loneliness reflected in the body during intimate moments and brings these universally felt emotions to the canvas. By representing this perspective she provides the opportunity for viewers to engage with and empathize with subjects and stories that have been systematically erased.

Raised in Houston, Texas, Danielle Robbins currently lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. She began painting during her time as an undergraduate at Brandeis University where she was inspired to create work that would document her experience as a queer person of color in a predominantly white institution. Since graduating Danielle has focused her painting on documenting complex perceptions of self and relationships to others. Danielle’s oil paintings have been exhibited in a variety of juried and community shows throughout Boston.

Vinnie Pavao

Moto, wood and metal, 19 x 9 inches

Fragments, wood, metal and stone, 10 x 12 inches

Burst, metal, stone and wood, 21 high x 31 inches

Forgotten, wood, clay, bamboo and concrete, 24 x 12.5 x 31 inches

Runt, wood and metal, 7 x 4 inches

Semplice, wood, metal and stone, 42 x 11 inches

Vinnie Pavao’s found art assemblages are an examination of the elegant forms that nature creates. The foundation of Pavao’s work are nature’s raw materials of wood and stone as he tries to contrast them with materials never originally intended to be used as artistic mediums. Other parts have been collected over time, many being discovered while conducting his duties in the fire service. Pavao pushes into deeper layers of meaning and concept as the abstract nature of each work. His objective with each work is a visually sensual surface with a much deeper undertone. In this way he can express a vision of a mutual reverence between nature and humanity, a resurrection of sorts where he can bring back life to what was once discarded and left to decay.

Vinnie Pavao is a self-taught artist, working out of his home studio in Dartmouth, MA. His work has been shown in the south coast region of New England. This is his first show in Boston.

Barbara Trachtenberg

Lampedusa Shipwreck, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

Man Entrapped in la red, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 17 inches

Refugee Ship with Shirtcuff, acrylic, mixed media on canvas, 36 x 36 inches,

Refugee Embracing His Wall, acrylic on canvas, 23 x 17 inches

The Impermenance of Sorrow, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

Barbara Trachtenberg’s interest in the plight of immigrants began with her family’s history, and her work as teacher and school psychologist in Chelsea's immigrant community. This is where she also collected Central American mothers’ stories of escape and acculturation.

A self-taught photographer and painter, Trachtenberg has photographed in Mexico, Europe, Turkey, Morocco and Havana. In 2011, she gradually moved from photography to painting. Process is key to Trachtenberg's painting, which is spontaneous, unplanned and aggravated. Refugee Ship with Shirtcuff reveals her impromptu, agitated work. Refugee Embracing His Wall paints an appropriation of power. Man Entrapped in the network of immigration is downcast. But The Impermanence of Sorrow sings an optimism in the evolution of hope. Her layered work creates an amalgam in which she finds figures emerging that address today’s dilemma of global immigration.

Trachtenberg works at her studio in The Mill at Saxonville, Framingham, Massachusetts.  

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