Vivian Wolovitz
"Branching"
November 2 - December 1, 2012

Projects Gallery is pleased to announce its second solo exhibition by Vivian Wolovitz – “Branching”.  Ms. Wolovitz will present a grouping of recently completed large and small-scale paintings.

The fields and woods of Chester County that surround her home and studio outside of Philadelphia have, for many years, played a central role in the landscape-based abstractions of Vivian Wolovitz.  It continues to be the muse for this current exhibition, “Branching.”  Wolovitz steps into the landscape here with a confrontational composition style, which gives us an intense view of the landscape from a shallow space.  She hovers over the core of thicketed tree trunks as if she has plunged into the densely limbed area as an adventurer searching for a long-hidden civilization.  This branch-filled environ serves as an arena for an exciting new series of works.  Through the tangled space, we have vivid reds, blues and yellows emanating from a distant source.  Is it the time of day we sense or the glow of a far off fire?  The artist leaves us with no answers, only questions.  As one peers into these thickets, eyes bouncing from one arrow-like branch to another, one realizes it is not the time of day we sense but rather the richly felt mood of the painter as she plunges into the space in her quest.  What does she seek in such a shallow and confined search?  It is the desire to confront the human condition.  A condition with no defined threat but clearly threatened.  Not by these hearty trees, but by a force unseen yet perceived.  She is not creating a dire view but rather a forceful optimism.  The passion of the artist to wrestle with these forces and emerge with a powerful visual memento is, in fact, a reassuring gesture.  Like a sentinel who watches the town as we sleep, a sentinel we do not see only sense as we greet the new day, Wolovitz rewards us with the sense that we can be at ease as the artist in the role of seer is in fact doing just that.  These are dramatic and expressive works, vivid in image and rich in content.  She continues to forge ahead on the narrow line between abstraction and image.  Boldly conceived and deeply felt, moving and unforgettable as images, these works prove to be among the artist’s most salient paintings to date.

Ms. Wolovitz received her M.F.A from the Maryland Institute College of Art and was a college professor for 30 years.  She has been a lecturer/visiting artist to Bulgaria and Mexico and received a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts grant for painting.

Vivian Wolovitz
"Second Nature"
November 5 - December 18, 2010

                  Projects Gallery is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition by Vivian Wolovitz – “Second Nature”.  Ms. Wolovitz will present a grouping of recently completed large and small-scale abstract paintings.

                  “Second Nature” brings us into intimate contact with Vivian’s remarkable personal vision.  The rich impastoed surfaces, repeatedly worked and rebuilt, immediately reveal the artist’s deep commitment to both painting and her connection to the landscape. As her brush crosses the surface creating pentimenti upon pentimenti and color field on color field, one is confronted by a rich sense of a “land space” fully felt and understood. As coined by Philadelphia art critic Edward Sozanski, this is “slow art.”  When one looks upon the surface, they are drawn immediately to the color.  Slowly, upon continued observation, the subsurface is revealed.  A scraping here, a scratching there and throughout layers revealed in an almost hypnotic mantra.

                  Vivian leaves us few clues as to the initial impulse for each painting; yet, the presence of the landscape is complete and total.  As one stands in the weathered and well-worn barn that is her studio, there are two things that captivate the visitor.   The first, of course, are the paintings.  The other is the enormous presence of the windows to the landscape just beyond the wall.  These paintings have this light, this air, this authority.  However, they also have something else - a sense of the purity of art.  Art made from experience free from superficial reference.  Art that is itself nature and just as complete. 

                  These are not the works of someone new to the task.  They reflect the master’s hand in every way.  They are confident and bold, hard fought yet fresh.  One loses oneself in the fluid juice of oil paint stayed just long enough to lock onto a fleeting sense of a moment now frozen in the viscous brew.  In this show we see paintings of profound commitment and deep feeling.  As one moves through the exhibition, each canvas is a first-time experience, leading the viewer through the artist’s eyes and senses.  The vivid freshness of this work and the unmistakable feeling of the artist’s deep involvement in their making leads a viewer to believe that they are being made before their very eyes.  It is exactly this that makes them art, expression realized in tranquility.  The strong earthly connection, together with the nervous tangibility of their making, comes together to create a full and memorable experience in paint.