Works by
Joan Backes
Jay Coogan
Katherine Meyer

June 3 – July 1, 2004

The artists represented in this exhibition respond in various ways to the natural world. In some cases that response can be characterized as observational, conditional or symbolic. These references are about the human impact on the rhythms and cycles of the seasons, the orbitary relationship of the earth to the moon and the sun or the life cycle of a single organism and by extension the impact of those inescapable rhythms on us.

Joan Backes’ reference is often direct, transplanting a layer of leaves from a forest floor, or a series of rubbings taken from the bark of trees to the isolated arena of an art gallery setting. This serves immediately to position us in a direct confrontation with our notions of the relationships we have with the natural world. Her works place us both at a distance as casual observer and in other works as integral to the environment she creates.

Jay Coogan talks of the unalterable condition of the cycles of life and death and this predictable condition is the source for much of his work. His works often combine hard materials like wood or copper with the voluptuousness of ripe fruit. “I chose fruit to depict these issues because of its power as a symbol of sexuality, fecundity and morbidity. The seductive skins and surfaces of the sculptures give way to inevitable decay and the interior darkness. These works with their manmade and organic references unite the interplay of the life saga between man and nature. The copper sheathes the charred and eaten wooden interiors like a shield against total disintegration.”

Katherine Meyer works to remove all human reference to her work. Her careful observations of place and absolute desire to submerge herself in the environment she is recording work seek to both isolate and connect the viewer to the moment. Her choice to work with simple tools, in this case, charcoal and paper also relate to a desire to become an extension of the environment. In her creative process the distinctions between her physical being and the world around her become less obvious. She accepts nothing less than full immersion into the experience. Of her time at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, in the high desert chaparral of southern California, she writes that “one August I found myself waking up at 5:00 a.m. to get some drawing done before it got to be 110o, resting in the afternoon, and working again when the cooling wind started blowing through the live oak grove. The strictures of the heat did not seem like interference. Rather, I felt I was truly experiencing the nature of the place.”

Backes received an MFA from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She has received numerous honors and awards including a Fullbright Hays Grant in 2003, the National Endowment for the Arts Award, the Ragdale Foundation Award and was a recipient of a Fullbright Scholar Award in 1994-95. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Hafnarborg Institute of Culture and Fine Art, Iceland, 2003; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 2002; Jan Weiner Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 2001. Selected Group Exhibitions include Contemporary Drawing, University of Nebraska Galleries, Lincoln, NE, 2004; Hands to Work, Mind to Art; Borusan Art Museum, Istanbul and Turkey, 2003-4; and 20 Years, Virginia Lynch Gallery; Tiverton, RI, 2003-4. She currently lives in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Coogan holds an MFA in sculpture from Hunter College, New York, NY. Awards include a RISD Faculty Development Grant, 1997; Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, 1993; and a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1985. His work is held in various public and private collections including the Neuberger Museum, S.U.N.Y., Purchase, NY; Prudential Insurance Company, New York, NY and Goldman Sachs & Company, New York, NY. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Hunter Gallery, St George’s School, Newport, RI, 2003; Diepenbrock/Suydam Gallery, Newport, RI, 1999; and group shows such as Pulp Fiction, French Library and Cultural Center, Boston, MA, 2003; Summer Space, Anderson Ranch, Snomass, CO, 2002; and A Whole New Space, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2002. He lives in Cranston, RI.

Meyer has a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and she is represented by Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI. She recently received residency grants from the Eastern Frontier Educational Foundation, Norton, ME; Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, New York; and the Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, New York. Selected exhibitions include Rice/Polak Gallery, Provincetown, MA; Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI; and Conversations in Black and White, Foreman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY. She lives in Bristol, RI.