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June, 2008
Elisabeth Gross-Marks
Merry-Go-Round
Wednesday, June 4, through Sunday, June 29, 2008
Opening reception: Friday, June 6, 5:00-8:00 pm -- featuring music by clarinetist John Greenly
Special Event: Dance Performance by Maren Waldman, Wednesday, June 18, 7:00 pm
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 Treasure Chest
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"Making Art Is an Adventure"
Since the age of eleven, Elisabeth Gross-Marks has been making art. She started painting pictures -- first of people and after time, her work moved toward meticulously composed canvasses that were abstract. Throughout, the constant in her work--whether representational or abstract has been its color -- bright, lively, expressive, moving color.
When Gross-Marks became a member of State of the Art Gallery in 1990, she showed her abstract paintings. Today, her work still has its abstract qualities but it has become three-dimensional and often it has actual movement. There is still paint -- and the paint is still bright and colorful -- but it is in combination with many other materials: paper, fabrics, packing materials and this work she calls collage.
Collage, Gross-Marks says, has changed her way of working: "I like to experiment and do each time as I never did before. Making art became an adventure." She says her friends collect packing and recycled materials for her. She has discovered that these found objects already have their beauty and aesthetic.
"Someone built them for a special use. I play with them, combining things that were not thought to go together, paint them in bright colors, creating a world of playfulness, fantasy and joy, that I like to share with others."
In conjunction with this exhibition, "Let Art Dance", a performance by dancer Maren Waldman will take place at the gallery on Wednesday, June 18 at 7:00 pm. Gross-Marks will be present for a discussion of her work.
 Left to right, "Contradiction," "Suspension," "Contradiction" back, "Tap Dancing"
 Maren Waldman, featured in the special event at the Gallery on June 18, is a dancer and choreographer who has performed widely and currently teaches at the Community School of Music and Art in Ithaca. Concerning this project with Elisabeth Gross-Marks, she writes,
"Collaborating with artists from different disciplines offers me a chance to get at the heart of the meaning of art -- what are we each trying to communicate? Why do we do our work? In the presence of another artist I receive reflections of elements of my process and product that I might not notice when working alone. I hope that my collaborators also feel enriched by working with me. I enjoy asking questions about purpose and path to find the places that we meet. Elisabeth's work and mine meet easily in that we both find urgent importance in celebrating the enthusiasm of life. I have enjoyed meeting each piece of her work and helping to uncover its personal dancing expression.
Clarinetist John Greenly will be playing at the opening of Elisabeth Gross-Marks' show, Merry-Go-Round on June 6. He was co-writer and performer in the finale of Light in Winter 2007, and produces and performs regularly in programs for the chamber music group Music's Recreation (musrec.org). He has played recently in the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and in chamber music with the piano trio Innisfree in the Hudson Valley. He is a founding member of Music on Monhegan (musiconmonhegan.org), a summer chamber music festival in Maine. John greatly appreciates the colorful, joyful energy of Elisabeth Gross-Marks' work, and looks forward to responding to her work musically by playing for her opening reception.
This exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the
New York
State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program.
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