On Friday, September 18th, the FIU Art + Art History Project Room at Bakehouse Art Complex will open the Artist Residency exhibition by MFA candidates Hazel Gil-Salazar and Susan Maas.
Hazel Gil-Salazar and Susan Maas both create artworks that respond to the female figure through different uses of medium and form.
Maas creates sculptures that combine crochet and other traditional, repetitive handwork to emphasize the influence of the female form and the idea that women are multi-dimensional beings that can be soft and pliant, as well as strong and protective. The five sculptures that Maas has exhibited explore the concepts of identity and gender through the use of form and materials. The processes used include carving, sanding, knotting, and crocheting – which highlight the traditional and domestic role of women.
Gil-Salazar’s work emphasizes the intimate and primal act of imprinting her own body on long strands of Pelon that hang starkly from the ceiling, unveiling a magical balance, a metamorphosis of form and space. In Gil-Salazar’s artwork, transparency is important both formally and conceptually; therefore, the figures saturate both sides of the fabric. For Gil-Salazar, these works are very personal, since they convey the artist immersed in her art, after being without her creative outlet for the many years she focused on raising a family.
Hazel Gil-Salazar and Susan Maas are both second-year Masters in Fine Arts students at FIU. The Artist Residency exhibition was curated by Brittni Winkler, third-year Masters in Fine Arts: Curatorial Practice Track candidate and FIU Art + Art History Project Room coordinator.
Artist Residency: Hazel Gil-Salazar and Susan Maas will open with a reception on Friday, September 18th, 2015 at 7:30PM in the FIU Art + Art History Project Room at Bakehouse Art Complex: 561 NW 32 Street, Miami, Florida 33127.
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