TWO ARTISTS MINE THEIR PASTS AT HERA GALLERY…

Two gallery artists reflect upon their personal pasts in Hera's upcoming exhibition. In her twenty-seven years of exhibiting at Hera, President Alexandra Broches' introspective work has developed parallel with the gallery's history. In her recent series of mixed media works, Markings of Loss, Traces of Presence, Broches uncovers the complex relationships between childhood and adult experience.

Hee Jae Suh, a Korean artist now living in California, presents her first exhibition on the East Coast, From Diary, which chronicles the artist's experience of relocation in a series of prints combining woodcut and drawing.

These concurrent exhibitions run from June 1-July 6, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 1, from 5-7 PM.

Alexandra Broches' recent series, Markings of Loss, Traces of Presence uses digitally compiled works to explore interconnected themes of place, memory, identity and loss. To create her works, Broches scans drawings she made as a child into her computer, and then reprints them alongside of her own recent black and white photographs. In this way the artist documents and connects points of her own personal history to contextualize and re-imagine memory. Broches says, "Place, memory, identity and loss are complex topics, deeply cathected subjects…. They are topics that are not easily isolated, concerns that are interconnected at a very basic level and are now complicated by the introduction of new media."

Broches creates an archive of the past that speaks to the present, and which echoes concerns and issues that have figured throughout her life. By creating these altered records of the past, Broches takes charge of it, assigning meanings and interpretations that did not previously exist without this new context. Broches' works explore new meanings created by her use of technology. For instance she observes, "My childhood drawing is fragile and impermanent, yet when scanned and printed on drawing paper looks fresher than the original."

It is easy for viewers to imagine that these images are a part of one's own life. Fanciful childhood renditions of people, favorite places and things are scrawled with a familiar unsteady crayon on manila paper. Each drawing is juxtaposed with a black and white photo that represents an ordinary landscape feature such as a 1950s motel, a bird, an unmade bed, an empty room, or a small, indistinguishable house in a field. Nowhere is there an actual photographic portrait of landmark that clearly tells the viewer that these objects do not belong to our own past. For the most part, the beautifully developed photos are composed with extreme precision, and seem carefully constructed to avoid the over-particular association, like suspects in a police line-up. These memories are specific to the artist, and carry personal associations to her-however, Broches has compiled her images in such a way so that they resound with viewers.

As one of Hera's founders, Broches' artistic background during her distinguished career has shifted from painting and printmaking to photography. This is her first solo exhibition at Hera since 1997. Recently she has exhibited in a one person show at The Print Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2001, and did her MFA thesis exhibition at the TW Wood Gallery at Vermont College in 1999. Broches has exhibited extensively, with numerous shows nationally. Internationally, in 1995 she showed her work in Huairou, China at the Women's Caucus for Art Delegation, Fourth UN World Conference on Women. Broches' leadership at Hera has been possibly the single greatest component in the gallery's success since its inception in 1974.

"During her career, Broches' dedication to developing exhibitions and supporting artists at Hera has encouraged hundreds, if not thousands, of artists, particularly women artists. Her commitment to the gallery and her creative attitude towards leadership has been at the root of the gallery's success. She is the driving force behind key programs and exhibitions, and has an amazing capacity to turn new ideas into real programs, " says Director Katherine Veneman.

Hera is excited to present the works of Hee Jae Suh, a Korean printmaker trained in Japan, who currently resides in California. In Suh's first exhibition at Hera, From Diary, the artist presents a series of woodblock prints which incorporate drawing elements.

Suh's inspiration for this series has been her travel experience over the past several years, as the artist has moved from her native Korea to Kyoto, Japan, and finally to San Francisco. She describes her work both as "nostalgic" and "journalistic," and says that she has found the change of context provided by travel to be artistically liberating.

"Diary 2," woodcut & drawing, 22" x 18", 2001

Each piece is a multi-colored patchwork, with precisely rendered natural forms such as plants, marine life, or insects superimposed over a layer of partially readable text excerpted from the artist's journals. As in a quilt, the colored rectangles are slightly skewed and soft-edged. Within each rectangle, Suh employs a gradient to shift from light to dark values of the same tone. In some pieces, each rectangle is a different color, whereas others are monochromatic. The text beneath the color appears soft,
as if floating from one patch to the next, though the lines don't match up.

Crisply articulated drawings seem to hover over the hazy squares, while at the same time, picking up the background colors. Each patch contains a single form related to others in the artwork. For instance, a delicately formed grasshopper shares the stage with a lady bug, dragonfly, centipede and other whimsically drawn creatures. In other works, several types of flowers are documented with the precision of a botanical drawing. Still another contains several distince types of starfish and jellyfish.

Plucked from their surroundings like specimens in a box, Suh's playful images nonetheless appear lifelike. Rarely are the images totally centered or completely frontal-jellyfish appear to dance, ooze, or creep towards the edges of their designated planes, like school children required to sit at their desks at recess. These specimens are quite human, with distinct moods and personalities represented in a cast of characters specific to each page. It is easy to imagine the flowers are peering over to see what their neighbor is up to in these intimately conversational works. "Diary 9," woodcut & drawing, 22" x 18", 2001

Suh explains, "I depend on my imagination and inner feelings-sadness, anger, and happiness of my memories." Like Broches, Suh portrays an inner vision of the intersection between the external and the internal as she fuses personal journals and recollections with forms we can all recognize or wonder at.

Currently residing in San Francisco, Suh holds a BFA in Printmaking from the College of Fine Arts, Hong-ik University, Korea, and a MFA in Printmaking from Seika College in Kyoto, Japan. She has taught in Korea and has been a Visiting Artist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada as well as at KALA Art Institute in Berkeley, California. She has exhibited extensively in the US, Korea, Japan, and China.

Hera Gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Wednesday thru Friday (1-5) and Saturday (10-4). Call 401.789.1488 for more information.

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