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BEN SHAHN GALLERIES FEATURES
PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER BY SUSAN BEE Susan Bee, an artist whose artwork focuses on American culture and its effects, presents a one-person show of her paintings and works on paper in a show titled "Ice Cream Sunday," on exhibit from October 22 through November 30 in the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne. Gallery hours are Monday through
Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. A reception for the show will
be held on Thursday, October 25 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Galleries. Bee, whose works are on display
in Ben Shahn's East Gallery, incorporates all manner of materials into
her assemblage paintings, including images from old comic books, paper
dolls, baseball memorabilia, poetry, and 1940s era advertisements. She
combines these found elements with a wide variety of marks and signs --
from horizontal brush strokes to drips to flowers -- in works that encompass
themes from everyday life. "Her work is intimate
and full of three-dimensional quirks and charges," writes David Shapiro,
art critic and professor of art at William Paterson, in an essay for the
catalog that accompanies the exhibit. "The relay between Americana
of the humblest variety and an early Mondrian-like reiterated mark make
her work full of responsible joy...Her use of the folk idiom is countered
by the learned brush." Bee's exhibit is one of three
shows on view concurrently in the Ben Shahn Galleries. On view in the
South Gallery is "The Artist Revealed. Portraits from the Collection
of Alma Alabilikian and Peter Paone," which features photographs
of famous artists in their studios. In the Court Gallery, sculptor Bill
Stewart displays a collection of his figurative ceramic works. All exhibits
are free and open to the public and are wheelchair accessible. This exhibit is made possible
in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department
of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
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