Opening tonight in New York, Waxed in Time: Four Takes on Encaustics, showcases the work of artists Nancy Azara, Joan Giordano, Renee Magnanti and Kathy Stark. It runs at the Tenri Cultural Institute of New York until February 27th.
All four of these artists use encaustic in tandem with other media to stunning effect. None of their work is about the wax itself, which is a breath of fresh air in a “wax obsessed world”. To quote the show’s curator, Thalia Vrachopoulos,“These four masters express their concepts in wax creating a dialogue on issues such as communication, trans-culturalism and trans-spirituality”. This promises to be a smart juxtaposition of their work – I only with I could be there to see it.
P.S. If I had any complaint about this show, it would be about the rest of it’s brochure, in which Dr. Vrachopoulos goes on to preemptively defend these four female artist’s work against being “perceived as a woman’s touch, miniaturish, delicate or somehow detail driven”. She also manages to call their work “sensative” twice. Ouch. Need I say more?
