Marymount University invites the public to a free opening reception for its its upcoming exhibition, “Barren”, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 19 at the Barry Gallery. The exhibit will feature works from Rachel Guardiola, Caroline Hatfield and Elizabeth Holtry. It runs through Nov. 25.
This exhibition is in a sense an alternative landscape show, dealing with issues of climate change, natural disasters, and the strength, resilience and fragility of the earth. Each artist incorporates some aspect of landscape in their work. For example, Holtry’s recent series of paintings, entitled “Salt,” explores the beauty and underlying fragility of the Bonneville Salt Flats in remote Northwestern Utah. Guardiola spent time in Iceland in an area with particular topography, with mythological and geological significance. Hatfield creates sculptural landscapes of industrial relics and geological formations.
“Guardiola” investigates the intersection of art, science and human curiosity to seek the unknown through lens-based technology. She is a 2016-2018 Hamiltonian Artist Fellow and Studio Resident at School 33 Art Center. Her international exhibits have included List í Ljósi Festival, Iceland; Sydney College of the Arts, Australia; and Dakar Biennale de l’Art Contemporain in Senegal. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and bachelor’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Hatfield, the winner of the Trawick Contemporary Art Prize, explores concepts of utopia and science fiction using sculpture, installation, photography and drawing. Her sculptural landscapes are composed of industrial relics, geological formation and mutable material that obscure boundaries and accumulate into form. She has had solo exhibits at Towson University, Mount Saint Mary’s University, La Bodega Gallery in Baltimore and other locations. Baltimore-based, she earned her bachelor’s degree in sculpture from the University of Tennessee and her Master of Fine Arts in interdisciplinary studio art from Towson University.
Holtry, born in Virginia, received her bachelor’s degree in studio art from the University of Maryland and her Master of Fine Art in painting from the University of Cincinnati. She has exhibited nationally and regionally, including Hillyer Art Space, the Jones Center for Contemporary Art and Signal 66. Her recent work will soon appear in the forthcoming edition of New American Paintings. She is a professor of visual art at Mount St. Mary’s University and lives in Frederick, Maryland.
The Barry Gallery, located in the Reinsch Library at Marymount, 2807 North Glebe Road, is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Admission is free. (The Reinsch Library and Barry Gallery entrance is at 26th Street, just north of Yorktown Boulevard. Access for individuals with disabilities is available.) For more information on the gallery, go to marymount.edu/barrygallery.
Captions
Image 1
Rachel Guardiola, The Adventures of the Investigator & Madame VEGA Archives (Other Earth Archives), 2018, Archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches
Image 2
Caroline Hatfield, Land and Water, 2018, paper mache, carved polystyrene, acrylic paint, powdered pigment, wood, acrylic, 12 x 20 x 4 inches
Image 3
Elizabeth Holtry, Bonneville Salt Flats Series: Halite I, 2017, Oil on panel, 6 x 6 inches
