February 28 in the Zlock Performing Arts Center
Last updated: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 11:56 AM
Starting at 5:30 p.m. on February 28 in the Zlock Performing Arts Center on the Newtown Campus of Bucks County Community College, Philadelphia-based artists Diane Burko, Nicolo Gentile and Kristen Neville Taylor will discuss their artworks featured in the exhibition, “Construction Time Again” on view nearby in the College’s Hicks Art Center Gallery. All three artists respond to social, cultural, architectural, ecological, and environmental events that locally and globally impact all human lives through different media and concepts in their artworks.
In 2023, Diane Burko attended the LABverde residency in Brazil. The experience invigorated the artist’s pursuit to “[celebrate] the sublimity of the landscape by honoring the intricate geological and political webs that shape the identity of a place” in her art practice. Burko’s diptych paintings on view in the exhibition, “Deforestation 1” and “Deforestation 2”, illustrate and represent the charring of the landscape; a violent act displacing Indigenous peoples who have inhabited Amazonia for thousands of years.
Nicolo Gentile’s figural aluminum casts on weightlifting equipment specifically address the demolition of the building that once housed the 12th Street Gym in Philadelphia—a vital hub for the neighboring gay community that closed in January 2018 after serving 4,000 members for 30 years. A ghostly presence permeates Gentile’s sculptures—vestigial reminders of the members whose space held community.
Land use and resource evolution are central themes in Kristen Neville Taylor’s recent body of work “End of Days.” With personal ties to glass production and installation; her father worked as a glazier installing windows in skyscrapers, Taylor’s pâte de verres, videos, and sculptures describe myths and lore around the evolution of the sand mines of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The once 1,000 active mines have mostly vanished leaving massive lakes of tropical hued water- tinged with cyanobacteria.
Discussion topics and questions for the artists during the artists’ talk will include: “How does each use research in their creative processes?”; “What does the adage ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ mean to them now?”; and “How can artists make the world more peaceful?” After the discussion, the audience will have the opportunity to ask the artists questions.
The artists’ talk and discussion will be moderated by Hicks Art Center Gallery Exhibitions Associate, Clifford Eberly. This event is free and open to the public.
The Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Saturdays from noon – 4 p.m.
For more information, please visit Hicks Art Center Gallery and follow on Instagram @bcccartscomm.