November 17, 2008

The BC Library presents
Instant Messages
Collages by Asya Dodina & Slave Polishchuk
November 18 - February 25, 2009

Instant Messages evolved from a series entitled Chimeras by the New York husband-and-wife team of artists, Asya Dodina and Slava Polishchuk, both staff members of the Brooklyn College Library.
    Working together since 2003, the artists pursued their creative explorations in realistic manner. Gradually, nonfigurative elements begin to predominate in their work. The powerful emotional tension typical of their individual works achieves even greater expressiveness in the mysterious biomorphic images that emerge from their collaborative drawings and canvases as chimeras, frightful apparitions that blend parts of human bodies and animal carcasses.  
    In these recent collages on paper, the artists mix text and other materials with their chimera images. The repetitive text conveys a sense of urgency while the thought-provoking distorted shapes are in striking contrast to the beauty and fragility of the flowers.   
    Both artists were born in the former Soviet Union. Asya received her education at the Surikov Art Institute in  Moscow and at Brooklyn College. Slava graduated from the Moscow Art School and from Brooklyn College. In 1990, Asya received a medal from the Russian Academy of Arts for her series Reminiscence. She received a Russian Academy of Arts Fellowship. Many works by Slava are in the collection of the Russian State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey.
    Last year, the couple had a solo exhibition in Germany and their works were featured in the Brooklyn Au Natural exhibit at the Dumbo Safe-T-Gallery. 
    The artists’ website is www.poldod.com

The BC Library presents
Visions
John Arruda
November 18 - February 25, 2009

John Arruda, also a Library staffer, graduated from the Art Institute of Boston in 1970 and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1973.  After moving to Brooklyn in 1977, he began showing in various New York galleries and has been on continuous exhibit at the Belanthi Gallery in downtown Brooklyn since 1984.  
    An art critic once described Arruda’s works as “delicious strangeness.”  Often dreamlike, intriguing and psychological intense,  Arruda’s works reflect the human soul.  His exceptional painting techniques gives life to emotions creating  compelling, highly original works.  
    The larger pieces in this exhibit were inspired by the view from out of his front window on Batchelder St. in Sheepshead Bay. The smaller pieces reflect his longtime interest in traditional urban landscape painting.

Above left: Asya Dodina and Slave Polishchuk, "Instant Messages #10,"  mixed media on paper, 22 x 30 inches, 2007-08

Top: John Arruda, "Falling Man," acrylic on canvas, 48 x 44 inches, 2008.