Opening this Friday at ADA Gallery, Joan Gustad’s ‘LOVE & Other Demons’ is her first show since the passing of her husband and in that context is a brave exhibition that some might find hard to look at. The new work has the children again as subject matter but all the imagery has been tinged with a sense of something uncomfortable.
Opening Friday October 1, 2010, 7-10 pm
Artist talk and reception: October 9, 2010, 5:30-7:30 pm
ADA Gallery 228 W Broad St.
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” Joan Gaustad has followed her own muse for many years, creating a landscape of ethereal beauty that, perhaps with the waving of a wand or a secret incantation, seamlessy integrates darkly ambiguous social scenarios. There are all kinds of echoes here – from 50’s illustration to the Tantric and the tribal. ”
– RICHARD ROTH , artist and writer
Perhaps it is her lifelong fascination with spirituality (Christianity as a child, and Buddhism as an adult), that “lends [her] paintings an almost iconic weight, and suggests the sacred. The tension and power of Gaustad’s art lies in the coexistence of images which acknowledge fear, even trauma, with a way of rendering which implies the hope and dignity possible in any life, however damaged.”
–Wesley Gibson, Art Papers and New Art Examiner
Joan Gaustad (b). September 11, 1948 , Richmond, Va
Education includes art studies in Bangkok, Thailand (1967-1969), Offenbach Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Offenbach, Germany(1970-1971) and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1974. Joan Gaustad has shown her work throughout Virginia, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, University of Richmond, and the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joan shares her life in Richmond, Virginia with painter Gerald Donato, where they both have been active supporters of the arts. In 2007 Donato and Gaustad were jointly awarded the Thesesa Pollak Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Opening this Friday at ADA Gallery, Joan Gustad’s ‘LOVE & Other Demons’ is her first show since the passing of her husband and in that context is a brave exhibition that some might find hard to look at. The new work has the children again as subject matter but all the imagery has been tinged with a sense of something uncomfortable.
Opening Friday October 1, 2010, 7-10 pm
Artist talk and reception: October 9, 2010, 5:30-7:30 pm
ADA Gallery 228 W Broad St.
—————————————
” Joan Gaustad has followed her own muse for many years, creating a landscape of ethereal beauty that, perhaps with the waving of a wand or a secret incantation, seamlessy integrates darkly ambiguous social scenarios. There are all kinds of echoes here – from 50’s illustration to the Tantric and the tribal. ”
– RICHARD ROTH , artist and writer
Perhaps it is her lifelong fascination with spirituality (Christianity as a child, and Buddhism as an adult), that “lends [her] paintings an almost iconic weight, and suggests the sacred. The tension and power of Gaustad’s art lies in the coexistence of images which acknowledge fear, even trauma, with a way of rendering which implies the hope and dignity possible in any life, however damaged.”
–Wesley Gibson, Art Papers and New Art Examiner
Joan Gaustad (b). September 11, 1948 , Richmond, Va
Education includes art studies in Bangkok, Thailand (1967-1969), Offenbach Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Offenbach, Germany(1970-1971) and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1974. Joan Gaustad has shown her work throughout Virginia, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, University of Richmond, and the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University. Joan shares her life in Richmond, Virginia with painter Gerald Donato, where they both have been active supporters of the arts. In 2007 Donato and Gaustad were jointly awarded the Thesesa Pollak Award for Excellence in the Arts.
