Artists' Talk - Mother Nature/Human Nurture

Artists Panel will feature the three artists - Pamella Allen, Qiana Mestrich, and Dara Oshin - and curators Katherine Gressel (The Old Stone House) and Grace Freedman (Why Not Art), leading a conversation with community on the themes of this exhibit.

Please RSVP as seating is limited!

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Healing, breaking, regrowth, fertility, spirituality - works in this exhibition explore the complex interconnections among nature, nurture, sustenance, renewal and the cycles of life.

Mother Nature/Human Nurture presents works by artists Pamella Allen, Qiana Mestrich, and Dara Oshin in a range of media, including natural materials and human-made representations of the same. They investigate nature as a life source that is universal and spiritually grounding among a diverse set of cultural perspectives. Inspired by their own experiences as caregivers, all three artists eschew traditional figurative representation of motherhood and care in favor of symbolic natural elements that also have strong local and cultural associations: eggs/birds, leaves/branches, bones, seashells, mandalas. By connecting the repetitive yet regenerative activities of caregiving with natural and spiritual phenomena, the work in this exhibition serves to elevate the role of both the “human nurturer” and the natural environment and suggest their interdependence during a time when our ability to care for both our environment and each other is under threat.

Some of the work in the exhibition was made in collaboration with or in reference to specific children, relatives or community members.

See also Finding Center - Nature Speaks History, an earthwork by Pamella Allen on the Old Stone House grounds. The public will be invited to contribute to this outside artwork through a participatory workshop by Pamella Allen that explores our relationship with this site’s native plants, waterways and history.

Curated by Katherine Gressel (The Old Stone House) and Grace Freedman (Why Not Art)

This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Artwork URGolden by Pamella Alen

Artwork: The Moment by Dara Oshin

Artwork: Hoja Seca (After Flor Garduño) by Qiana Mestrich

Finding Center - Nature Speak History (foreground), Earthwork by Pamella Allen