EVE Woman from Archetype to Abstraction

Sept. 30, 2016 – Jan. 10, 2017

An expansive group exhibit of drawing, painting and sculpture featuring woman as Muse.

The exhibition EVE :: Woman from Archetype to Abstraction misbehaved from the start, perhaps as a nod to the legend of its namesake.  From an idea seemingly simple to a reality that was anything but straightforward, EVE defied containment or definition.
If EVE could speak, her words might be the contemporary classic: “It’s complicated.”

Controversial gender politics, male gaze vs female gaze, universality vs individuality, age, gender identity, assertions of what is or is not feminine and who declares it so… EVE made it clear she would birth more questions than answers.

In the end, I relied upon the strength of the art to compel the viewer, and the power of the artists to convey some wisp of an idea – or even a question – of womanhood.

There is no EVE.  Or maybe EVE is all of us.  It’s left to the viewer to decide.

Anne E. Gilroy, Thomas Center Galleries Curator