Figurative
Artists Zhenya Gershman and Miriam L. Preissel
Present Their Distinct Visions at Brand Library Art Center
For Immediate Release
LOS ANGELES, CA – Painter Zhenya
Gershman and photographer Miriam L. Preissel
will be presenting their distinctive approaches to figurative portraiture
at the Brand Library Art Center in Glendale. The exhibit, featuring Gershman’s
New Paintings and Preissel’s Men in Tutus, opens September 6, with
an artist’s talk at 4pm and reception from 5-7pm (both are free
and open to the public). The show runs through October 18. The gallery
has made a name for itself by consistently showing quality work. It is
located at 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale, CA (818-548-2051).
Both artists draw inspiration from live models. The similarities stop
here. Gershman, born in Russia but Los Angeles-based since her teens,
paints life-size portraits. “It’s not the figure that preoccupies
Gershman,” writes art critic Peter Frank in the catalogue accompanying
her exhibition, “so much as it is the person who inhabits the figure,
who gives life and meaning to the lump of flesh. Gershman individuates
her subjects one from another as much as she can, highlighting the particularities
of their faces, the peculiarities of their stances, the irregularities
of their bodies and the histories and mysteries suggested by their clothing,
no matter how colorful or how scant. Gershman is more a portraitist than
a figure painter.”
“What’s Stopping You?” is a question Preissel asks with
her art. Preissel rebelled against a tough, blue-collar upbringing to
become a visual artist. In her work, she asks others to examine their
boundaries. Men in Tutus, a collection of photographs printed on canvas
of men as ballerinas, is a stereotype-smashing examination of masculinity
and femininity. Volunteer ballet dancers include an R.O.T.C. instructor,
a retired elementary school janitor, a tattoo artist and a retired naval
commander. The Men in Tutus experience captured the interest of Cine Award-winning,
Bucks County, USA, Producer/Director Judith Vogelsang, who is producing
a documentary on this series that is scheduled for completion within the
year. Vogelsang will be videotaping the September 6th opening.
Gershman is a 2001 recipient of the ALEX award, sponsored by the National
Alliance for Excellence. She earned a Master’s degree at Art Center
College of Design and is currently teaching at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
She has exhibited her work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Bergamot
Station, and in The Art Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. Preissel
earned her B.F.A. in Broadcast/Film at Southern Methodist University and
works as a film editor in Los Angeles. Her abstract and conceptual photography
has been exhibited at Artshare, Los Angeles, and at galleries in Silver
Lake, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
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