UNSPOOLED
Joel Moskowitz
Sylvia Vander Sluis
June 5-30, 2019
First Friday Reception: June 7, 6-8 pm
Special Event: Alexander Davis Dance Performance, June 19, 7 pm TICKETS
Unspooled is an exhibit of paintings and fiber art by Joel Moskowitz and Sylvia Vander Sluis. Both artists use line to unspool their longings for wholeness—with Moskowitz working in two dimensions and Vander Sluis in three. Moskowitz winds a continuous dark line to build curving shapes on paper and wooden panel. His forms evoke the pull of planets embracing lonely moons. Vander Sluis uses lines of fiber and ribbon to build soft sculptures, creating totems that seem from an archaic tribe, fragments of sacred garments. They exude sensual beauty. Both artists capture mystery in their work, be it the psychosexual energy of Vander Sluis’s sculptures or the mandala-like spirit of Moskowitz’s paintings.
Synthesizing different materials and techniques, Sylvia Vander Sluis is known for her collage work. But when she discovered SAORI, a Japanese improvisational weaving technique, the physicality of woven material suggested a sculptural direction. She began experimenting with armatures, using weaving as the outer skin. Vander Sluis uses body shapes, mainly the torso, as a foundation for her intuitive work with color and texture. Her fiber figures are totems of emotional strength, yet their delicacy evokes vulnerability.
Vander Sluis statement
Vander Sluis biography
Vander Sluis resume
Joel Moskowitz draws long, spiraling lines, erasing and revising over time, building up a shape that seems, finally, both loose and tightly-wound. One end of the line hangs free, giving the viewer a way into the maze. Ink grows dense and looping like script. Moskowitz was a picture framer, and now his concentric lines are like frames, holding balls of color, silvery clouds, and collaged illustrations of animals. He blends minimalism and expressionism with a metallic sheen. His work, says Moskowitz, "is influenced by religious icons, yearnings for wholeness.”