Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

'Surfacing' exhibition to display original work by Karen Lee Lewis

Fri, Aug 18th 2017 04:50 pm
The Carnegie Art Center will host an opening reception from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, for "Surfacing," an exhibition featuring original works by local artist Karen Lee Lewis. 
This exhibition is an evolving meditation inspired by an exploration of inner and outer landscape. Lewis's photographic work is influenced by poetry and language, as well as shaped by image in print form. The poet Ronald Johnson wrote in his poem, "Summer," that "No surface is allowed to be bare, and nothing to stand still." Photographer Sebastian Delgado asks that we "Study what makes the world move."
Lewis questions what surfaces help us to see. They commune with elements of nature and art, and attend to the fluidity of spirit. In an effort to move the viewer toward a deeper understanding of environment, and our relationship to it, these artworks, both abstract and realistic in nature, are the results of actions designed to ferry us beyond the obvious. It is the artist's hope that they can stimulate breakthroughs, to encourage entering into a mindset of ground truth, and to open a conversation of what might be found there.
She said, ground truth, a term typically used by biologists, refers to information collected on location, where a person enters an environment and experiences it through firsthand observation. When ground-truthing, a person will pay particular attention via their sense of sight and sound.
Canadian born, and raised in Welland, Ontario, Karen Lee Lewis bought her first Minolta film camera when she was 15 years old, with earnings from her cafeteria job at Woolco Department Store. Her formative years were shaped by the after-effects of the major strokes her mother suffered. Her experience of ground truth developed during time spent wandering through her extended family's rural fields. She attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, receiving her Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology.
This exhibition is made possible in part by the City of North Tonawanda and the Members of the Carnegie Art Center.
For more information, call 716-694-4400 or visit www.carnegieartcenter.org.

Hometown News

View All News