EDGE – Balisle Blog

Opportunity is a gift to share perspectives. The goal is to expand beyond one’s social sphere of influence. Environment impacts our values and humanity. The Edge Effect upcoming exhibition at Katonah Museum of Art explores our status in the world.

*EARTH*, digital still, video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLIsjVpCX1s).

From the museum: “The Edge Effect describes an ecological phenomenon in the border area between disparate habitats, such as a meadow and a forest, which results in exponentially greater biodiversity. The Katonah Museum of Art recognizes that a museum creates a similar environment where works from artists with diverse backgrounds and locations are brought together to foster dialogue and spark creativity. Just as a border area is teeming with life, an exhibition can be a fertile place of ideas and image…This exhibition includes works in all media and subject matter submitted by artists from all over the U.S. and 13 countries around the world. 67 works were chosen out of 957 submissions. Juried by Akili Tommasino, Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston…”

Katonah Museum of Art (image source: http://www.katonahmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming/)

My artwork LAND, clear braille on polymer, was selected part of the exhibit. Description: A standard braille sign becomes repurposed by altering its function. The art serves as a marker questioning how special interests have weakened the natural environment. Citizens must not blindly follow but question, organize, and demand the highest standards preserving planet Earth.

Sixty-six artists will be featured including Hale Allen, Miya Ando, Bill Armstrong, Frances Ashforth, Michael Barraco, Anne Beidler, Kevin Bernstein, Mariella Bisson, Steven Bogart, Donald Bracken, Jeff Briggs, Renee Brochu, Lisa Brody, Bethany Brooke, Ashley Busby, Lindsay Carone, Emma Childs, John Clarke, Elizabeth Dexheimer, Gail Dressner, Catherine Eaton Skinner, Emily Fisher, Michele Gage, Ashley Garret, Suzan Globus, Mikhail Gubin, Nadia Haji Omar, Adrian Hatfield, Lisa Hesselgrave, George Hrycun, Richard Hughes, Austin Irving, Sung Hwa Kim, Vera Kirilenko, Lara Knutson, Geneviève L’Heureux, Fei Li, Jenna Lynch, Cynthia MacCollum, Sascha Mallon, Norma Minkowitz, Nancy Moore, Lael Morgan, Pamela Moulton, Patty Mullins, Tim Needles, Bonnie Neumann, John O’Dowd, Kerstin Paillard, Kathryn Poch, Aleksandar Popovic, Tanya Prather, Leah Raintree, Jennifer Song, Ileana Soto, Gerri Spilka, Tedd Stratis, Topher Straus, Sarah Sutton, Jeffrey Terreson, Lisa Turtz, Alain Vaes, Deborah Weiss, Terry Wise, Ming Ying, and myself.

Artists (image source: http://www.katonahmuseum.org/gedownload!/Edge%20Effect%20Accepted%20Artists.pdf?item_id=1995592&version_id=1995593)

The artists showcased are diverse in practice and background. From Artsy: “Drawing on her multicultural upbringing—she is half Japanese, half Russian-American, and was raised both in a Buddhist temple in Japan and in Northern California—Miya Ando combines metals, reflectivity, and light to create subtly beautiful metal canvases and sculpture.”

According to Snyderman–Works Galleries: “Norma Minkowitz is a Graduate of the Cooper Union Art School in NYC and has lived and worked in Westport, CT since 1959. In the 2004 monograph, Norma Minkowitz: Portfolio Collection, art critic Kathleen Whitney writes, ‘Working with fiber, wire, resin and found materials, Minkowitz has transformed the craft of crochet into a potent and timeless art form. Using fiber as line, she expands her passion for drawing and linear expression into a third dimension.’”

The selected artists share a lifetime of dedicated practice and endurance. Katonah Museum of Art provides an invaluable platform. Perhaps, the limit of creativity exists in the commercial center and not the edge. Migration of thought and purpose dispel borders.