Encountering Nature
Loosing Touch With Reality
An exhibition of artwork by artists working in the environment, featuring “Loosing Touch with Reality” .
Dendrology; Work in progress
I’m currently working on a piece for an exhibition in September, titled “Dendrology”, which addresses the nature of trees in the broader context of the natural world and in the realm of human society. Themes of deforestation, growth, interdependence, and sustainability are presented in a variety of media.
Dendrology; from ancient Greek “dendron” meaning tree, and “logia” the study or science of. Based on information from Wikipedia and other sources, I have learned that over 6.5 million trees were cut down to make 16 billion paper cups used by US consumers in 2006, using 4 billion US gallons (15,000,000 m3) of water and resulting in 253 million pounds of waste.
I’m making three tree stumps of paper coffee cups, (approximately 2,500 cups), toilet tissue rolls, paper towel rolls, and wire hangers.
Untitled Tree Project
Untitled Tree Project
Untitled Tree Project
Dendrology
Opening Reception: October 5, 2012
Noyes Museum in Oceanville, NJ.
5:00 – 8:00 PM
Growing A Garden
I started a new project in May…
Along with Bonnie Ora Sherk, founder of Life Frames Inc., we established the first New York- based, “Community Garden and Think Park” on Roosevelt Island. Through a program called “A Living Library”, which incorporates local resources and transforms them to become vibrant, content-rich, ecological learning landscapes, the students from PS 217, Child School, and the Beacon After School Program, are introduced to gardening- often for the first time! Encouraged to exercise their math, science, art, and history skills in our garden, the kids make new and exciting connections to their usual curriculum.
Was it a Weed Patch or A Garden??
In Late May we worked hard to turn the soil over and make the beds ready for the baby plants, which were donated by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.
After a few days of back breaking work, the kids and I found some semblance of a garden bed by following the designs of a previous garden. Many volunteers showed up almost over night to voice their opinion and make their presence known.
Mr. Black Squirrel
On Roosevelt Island Day, we were inundated with marvelous volunteers and an assortment of plants, as Martha Kerrs Photo’s will attest…the day was SPECTACULAR!
Out of Bounds Exhibition
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists and Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education present:
OUT OF BOUNDS
Featuring:
Susan Benarcik
Ana B. Hernandez
Brooke Hine
Darla Jackson
Mami Kato
Scott Pellnat
Caleb Nussear
Out of Bounds will be installed in a variety of settings around SCEE’s main building: in the large pond that greets visitors at the front of the building; in the Center’s new sensory garden; and in the wooded picnic grove that lead to the forest behind the building. Many of the works recreate and reimagine forms typically seen outdoors, such as Susan Benarcik’s knotted droplets, Ana Hernandez’s bright red fabric fungi, and Scott Pellnat’s giant boat. Others interact with the natural elements, giving the viewer a new perspective on familiar landscapes. Mami Kato’s work floats on the pond, kept company by a community of frogs, snakes and turtles. Caleb Nussear’s installation plays with mirrors amongst the trees, layering the visual experience of the woods. The one indoor installation in the exhibition, Darla Jackson’s “Birthday Party,” enlivens the Center’s foyer with sculptural animals, welcoming visitors and marking the 25th anniversary celebration of the Schuylkill Center’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, which treats and rehabilitates thousands of animals each year.
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
8480 Hagy’s Mill Road
Philadelphia, PA 19128
http://www.schuylkillcenter.orgHours: Monday – Saturday, 9am – 5pm
MAD ABOUT ART + DESIGN; A JURIED EXHIBITION on view from April 25th through September 4th, 2012
Mad About Art & Design
McNeill Art Group is proud to announce the opening of the inaugural juried art exhibition, Mad About Art + Design. Sixteen artists and designers have been selected by our jurors to be featured in the exhibition at the McNeill Art Group Tribeca Project Space on view from April 25th through September 4th, 2012. Please join us for an open house on Saturday and Sunday, May 5th and 6th from 11am-5pm.
A Flexible Perspective at the Perkins Center for the Arts March 31- May 12, 2012
Exhibition Title: Consuming Boundaries
Date: March 31 – May 12 , 2012
Perkins Center Collingswood
Opening: Thursday, April 12, 2012
6-9 PM
http://www.perkinscenter.org
This exhibition features the work of four fiber-based sculptors: Maria Anasazi, Susan Benarcik, Ana B. Hernandez and Diane Savona. Their project bare few similarities yet they share an active process where there is direct involvement in, attention to and engagement with the materials throughout the execution of the piece.
Video:
A Circumstantial Assembly at Moore College of Art + Design
On Friday March 2, 2010 Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia officially welcomed hundreds of artists, educators, and enthusiasts to the city to celebrate a new biennial for fiber/textile art, he also recognized March as “Fiber Arts Month” in Philadelphia. The goal of the “Fiber Philadelphia Biennial” is to enrich the Philadelphia region by exhibiting innovative textile art, supporting the advancement of education and awareness within the field of fiber and textile studies and promoting community participation through city-wide projects, workshops and lectures.
Exhibitions by renowned fiber artists, and a new generation of fiber artists breaking into the field take place at major institutions, galleries and independent venues in and around the Philadelphia area. The exhibition “A Circumstantial Assembly” at the Levy Gallery for the Arts, features work which reinterprets fiber art-based traditions and techniques. The artists included are: artists Susan Benarcik, Jill Marleah Bell, Ana Hernandez, Mark Khaisman, Daniel Kornrumf, Jedadiah Morfit, and Binod Shrestha, Exhibition Title: A Circumstantial Assembly
Exhibition dates: January 28 – March 17, 2012.
Levy Gallery at Moore College of Art and Design
20th Street and The Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1179
For more information on Fiber Philadelphia and the venues included: Fiber Philadelphia
Exhibition at New York Design Center
For a unique experience, visit the New York Design Center to see my exhibition at the 1st Dibs Gallery Space. First Dibs, is the world’s number one, on-line marketplace for antiques, mid-century modern furniture, art, estate jewelry, vintage watches, haute couture and vintage luxury items. Now located on the 10th floor of New York Design Center, their new brick and mortar presence is an experience you won’t likely forget. This new location includes two gallery spaces that feature art and design exhibitions. Stacey Donavan writes a lovely story about my work: Susan Benarcik at New York Design Center
NYFA Artist’s Boot Camp
This summer I participated in the NYFA “Artist as Entrepreneur Bootcamp”. Please come celebrate the brilliant and diverse talents of our 2011 Boot campers at various venues during our month-long creative festival. For up to date details visit: http://www.bootstrapfestival.com/
IN THE BOROWSKY GALLERY: CORPOREAL
Body Awareness a review by Victoria Donohoe
Philadelphia Inquirer Feb 10, 2012
“Corporeal,” the five-person sculpture show at the Gershman Y by alumni fellows of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, has a lot going for it. The poles of the exhibit belong to Ava Blitz and Maria Anasazi. Blitz, a “straight” sculptor, achieves chunky elegance with her limestone and alabaster pieces – her strong, squat Sphinx, and her somewhat personalized female body parts (lips, breasts). Brooke Hine’s ceramics more matter-of-factly look inside the human body, shaping a heart and intestines, while Leslie Speicher’s surprise is an evening dress, its pretty fabric printed with a blood-cell pattern.
Susan Benarcik, obviously gifted both in taste and dexterity, and versed in using plant materials, makes a key contribution. Yet the artist embodying the show’s theme best is resourceful Anasazi, with several works using found objects – a spine attached to lots of books, pieces of felt shaped like a pair of boots and pierced by hundreds of steel nails. This show has a solid, if not wildly inventive, premise.
Exhibition dates: January 6 – February 19, 2012
The Gershman YMCA
401 South Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Gallery hours: Monday- Sunday, 9 A.M.-5 P.M.
www.gershmanY.org
