“Continuum,” representing 30 years of artworks by Michel Demanche, who has spent the previous 25 as a professor in the Department of Fine Art at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, will be on display through August 15 in Salisbury.
The exhibit opens with a meet-the-artist reception Fri., July 18, from 5-8 p.m. at the downtown campus of the Salisbury University Art Galleries. Demanche will give a gallery talk at 6 p.m. The event is being held in conjunction with the Salisbury Arts & Entertainment district’s monthly 3rd Friday celebration.
Demanche’s works are based on stories from her past revealed in paintings, mixed works on paper and photography. The subject matter is perception, illusion and memory of eminent disaster as part of nightmares, storms or man-made destruction.
“Many of her artworks represent the ghosts of past situations in her own life or the lives of those closest to her,” said Tracy Causey of Causey Contemporary in New York, the curator for the show who represents Demanche along with William Campbell Contemporary Art in Texas. Pieces in this exhibit which exemplify this, she said, are “Monsters on Our Own Making,” “Triumph of Disaster,” the “Tom and Betty” series or the piece “Brain Chemistry.”
“Michel cares deeply about the natural world and is concerned about what the human race is doing to it without thinking,” said Causey. In her art, Demanche wants the viewer to recall similar situations they have experienced and hopes it invokes a sense of awareness and need for change. “Who knows what that resulting interaction between viewer and artwork will alchemically create within the world?”
In addition to UMES and SU galleries, Demanche’s works have been featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Houston Museum of Art, the Women’s Museum in Washington, D.C. and have won numerous recognition awards in art shows ranging from local venues to Florence, Italy.
Admission is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday from noon-6 p.m. and Saturday from noon-4 p.m.
Gail Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580.
Office of Public Relations
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Tuesday, July 22nd 2014 at 9:23AM
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