Darlene Charneco. Photo: Gary Mamay
MARKS FAMILY GALLERY SOUTH/TITO SPIGA EXHIBITION SPACE
Darlene Charneco is the 2020 Artist Members Exhibition Top Honors Awardee, chosen by Susan Thompson, associate curator, Guggenheim Museum.
Charneco uses various materials and techniques to create a distinctive visual language and mapping system, evoking memory, connection, and evolution. The Weaves and Touchmaps are part of an ongoing series of artworks inspired by dreams, visions, nature studies, and the common thread of ritual found in many cultures and religions.
Each mixed-media wall piece is created through the meditative process of hammering nails, one by one. The resulting aggregations of nails represent positive wishes and visualizations for our present and future Earth. Charneco regards this as a “writing” process in which the nails are tangible objects that symbolize renewed hope, determination, and faith in the accumulation of many small but important actions through time. Each piece is composed of units that are woven together into tactile topographic fields that gradually reveal microcosms in which complex organisms evolve, taking on ever-shifting roles, identities, and collective movements. Charneco highlights the power of individual acts to effect change when compounded through our interconnectedness, both physical and virtual.
This exhibition is organized by Guild Hall’s Director of Visual Arts, Melanie Crader.
Galleries are open Friday to Monday, 12-5 PM. Museum admission is always free.
Member Opening Reception: Saturday, March 9, 11 AM-1 PM
-
Darlene Charneco
Darlene Charneco is a contemporary Latin-American artist whose mixed-media mapping series looks at people, networks, homes, and communities as part of a larger organism’s growth stage. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States at venues including PRAXIS in Chelsea, NY, the Katonah Museum, the Hunterdon Museum, The Islip Art Museum, and the Parrish Art Museum, and is featured in the recent book ‘The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography’ by Katherine Harmon. She was awarded the 2017 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and recently completed a commission for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Charneco lives and works on the East End of Long Island, and is a part of the Guild Hall's Permanent Collection.
Photo: Philippe Cheng
Sponsors
Museum programs are supported by Crozier Fine Arts and funding from The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.