Women artists use their ‘Visual Voices’ for Jeannette gallery show
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Artists showing in the third “Women in Art” exhibition at You Are Here in Jeannette were given a specific assignment.
The submitted works had to adhere to the theme, “Visual Voice.” Each artist filled out a statement that began, “I use my visual voice to speak to …”
Previous “Women in Art” exhibitions in 2019 and 2021 didn’t have a theme, “so this really took (the artists) to task,” said gallery co-founder Jen Costello. “You can’t just bring in any piece of art because you’re a woman. It’s not anything they had stockpiled, they had to create it for the show.”
An opening reception for “Women in Art 2022: Visual Voices” will be held noon-6 p.m. Saturday in the gallery at 406 Clay Ave. The show runs through June 4.
Organizers wanted to know the influences and inspirations behind the works, which ended up speaking to everything from personal identity to social and environmental concerns to life in general.
“We were talking about a show that would celebrate women and how we might we frame it, given where we are,” said Maureen Vissat Kochanek, a Seton Hill University art history professor, who curated the show with artist Phoebe Walczak, a former You Are Here intern.
“I often say to my students how powerful artists are, because their visual voice speaks with more rapidity than a long essay,” Kochanek said. “Look at how we take in the news — it’s through images. We don’t read as much as we used to. Artists have a big visual voice.”
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The idea evolved that, with each submission, the artist would have to begin a statement with “I use my visual voice to speak to …” and then fill in the blank.
“Some of them wrote three words, some of them go on and on,” said gallery co-founder Mary Briggs. “Some have more than one statement.”
For the portrait of a woman titled, “Tired to My Soul,” artist Pamela Cooper wrote, “My visual voice speaks to the pain I still feel as a Black woman from racism.”
Accompanying a metal hot-air balloon sculpture called “Tinkering,” artist Marcia Gilbert said, “My visual voice speaks when words fail to succeed.”
“I’m seeing these patterns that our regional female artists are speaking to things that the larger, more well-known body of artists are also addressing in their art,” Kochanek said. “They’re addressing beauty, the nature of sexual identity, concern for the environment, things that associate women with the goddess, the archetypal image.
“Whether it’s at a national or international level — or a local level — artists are all concerned with the same things.”
Show organizers put out a call for artists from Westmoreland and surrounding counties and from Morgantown, W.Va., “because there are a lot of good artists in Morgantown and it’s only an hour from here,” Briggs said.
The 28 participating artists were invited to show up to three pieces each. Participation was open to anyone who identifies as a woman, Costello said.
“I think this is something we could continue every year because people’s voices can change every year,” she said.
Many of the featured artworks will be for sale, with prices beginning at $75.
Kochanek will host a virtual discussion in conjunction with the exhibition at 7 p.m. May 18. Anyone interested in joining can email yah406clay@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
Gallery hours are noon-4 p.m. Thursdays and noon-6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, visit yah406clay.org or You Are Here 406 on Facebook.