"Suzi Evalenko - What Mattered Most : A Life in Art and Letters"
2010-02-02 until 2010-02-27
First Street Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America

The First Street Gallery in New York shows Suzi Evalenko, "What Mattered Most: A Life in Art and Letters" in an exhibition of recent oil paintings and drawings, presenting a deeply personal body of work, dedicated to the artist's mother. The exhibition is on view from February 2 through 27, 2010. The First Street Gallery promotes their artists with a Gallery Portfolio at absolutearts.com.

Suzi Evalenko lives and works in New York City. Her predominant media are oils, pastels, charcoal and pencil.

If all art is intrinsically autobiographical, for Evalenko it is especially so. Time and again, the artist has gone back to her personal experiences and the lasting influences in her life, to create images that explore her subjects' interior lives as well as their physical selves, in a search for universal truths. For the past six years, her work has focused on the intimate relationships that have shaped her subjects' views of themselves. Her February 2006 show, Paternal Instinct, illuminated the bond between fathers and their small children. The relationship at the heart of her April 2008 show, Euterpe's Disciples: Classical, Latin and Jazz Musicians, was that of the musician with his or her instrument.

The current body of work is the most personal to date. No individual has had a greater influence on the artist than her mother (who was also an artist) — a beautiful, intelligent, passionate woman who left an indelible impression on everyone who knew her. Evalenko's February 2010 exhibition, What Mattered Most: A Life in Art and Letters, is dedicated to "Alla".

"What Mattered Most" to the artist's mother was her close-knit family and the loves who were the touchstones of her life — nearly all of whom remained dear family friends and devoted to her, wherever their separate paths took them. Evalenko knew them well (though in most cases, long after the fires had cooled).

The subtitle — "A Life in Art and Letters" — refers to Evalenko's discovery in 2001, at the time of her mother's death, of nearly 500 letters from those closest to her. Written by politically engaged, intellectually animated, literate people, the letters reveal the vulnerable side of the writers, their churning aspirations, and the private doubts they rarely showed in public. And, collectively, they paint an intimate emotional portrait of a vital woman.

In brief excerpts accompanying their portraits in this exhibition, the writers speak of what mattered most to them. The paintings and drawings seek to capture essential qualities of her subjects as Evalenko knew them — informed by their words on the yellowing pages.

Evalenko's work has been exhibited in numerous group shows as well as seven solo exhibitions in New York (five at First Street Gallery). She paints on commission both adults and children. Her work is in numerous private collections in the United States. South America and Europe.

View more work from this exhibition: Suzi Evalenko, "What Mattered Most: A Life in Art and Letters"

Visit the First Street Gallery's Portfolio at absolutearts.com galleries.absolutearts.com/firststreetgallery

IMAGE
Suzi Evalenko
Featured by First Street Gallery
Alla, 2009
Size: 23.5 x 22 inches
Medium: Charcoal Drawing

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in New York