The Figure

Artists include: Abiria Ali, Amanda L. Mottorn, Bill Karaffa, C.G. Marchl, Cheryl Coleman, Dai Morgan, Ellen Conrad, Emily Paige Armstrong, Hong Zhao, Jack Puglisi, Jeff Distefano, Jian Wang, Joe Witzel, Kat Spears, Kirsten Ervin, Ly Evangelista, Nancy Howarth, Olivia Biggs, Patrick Smith, Rachel Sample,  Sheila Ali, Thomas Tholen, and Travis Benn.

The Figure in an exhibition of over 20 local artists with their individual interpretations of figurative works. These works vary in mediums of oil, charcoal, pencil, paint and more and are on a variety of surfaces. A figure work can be as “minimal” as a quick, gestural drawing, or it can be an intensively painted portrait. Equally, a figure can be obscured and abstracted. The Figure at The Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, seeks to broaden the viewer's perspective on the concept of a figurative work.

The figure is an ancient form of study and some of the most famous works spring from combining chiaroscuro with line, shape and form. Here we have displayed figures in myriad ways, be it a sketch or incomplete study, abstract, or photographic rendering. The color of the paper and the contrast of the figure take on an infinite array of light and shadow. Some are accompanied by fruit feathers, skulls, books, or placed in nature. Others use shape and design as backdrops to the figure. The drawings are made with the point of pencil or the stroke of a brush of ink or paint; or the smudge of chalk, graphite or pastel.

The figure is often more perfect than in the real world. Here the artist contemplates and meditates with silence or song. More often in the figure sessions there is a respectful homage to the human form, for its beauty and natural resonance. We study it, trying to capture God’s creation, or the creation of gods. - s.ali, curator, IFCI   

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

Gallery hours 2 - 5 Saturdays on by appointment