MARION WILNER
40 Years A Retrospective

November 10 – December 16, 2005

Bristol Community College continues its 40th anniversary celebration with an art exhibit by the founding faculty member of its highly regarded Art degree program starting in November.

Through her works Marion Wilner explores connections between generations and asks fundamental questions about our relationships to the world around us. How do we change from one era to the next? Are there universal themes that bind us to each other, ones that go beyond our cultural and experiential differences?

Professor Wilner founded the College’s Art program with the belief that a complete education included art education. Many of her students went on to transfer to four-year art schools and universities and are working artists in their own right. But Wilner also envisioned a public gallery space at the College where students and the local community could have a space a place to enjoy and experience a variety of artists. The College now enjoys a 2,000 square foot gallery space that offers six to seven shows a year.

In her own work, Wilner conveys hope, promise, and a desire for meaning that transcends the physical bonds of this world. She borrows traditional symbols, motifs, and themes and reinvents them for herself. These investigations reflect a lifelong commitment to realism, the figure, classical ideals, and her Jewish heritage. Some of her images directly incorporate mythological themes and biblical references – especially the Old Testament.

Wilner’s works feature the spontaneity of watercolor or employ the characteristics of more labor intensive image-making processes such as woodcut. Through other techniques such as collage and monotype she has blurred distinctions between media, sparking new ideas about the ways to construct an image and create meaning. Each of these techniques integrates ritual, repetition, and memory, the processes through which one settles into the act of making a mark upon a page or a cut into a piece of wood. Wilner’s distinctive approach to her work has allowed her to roam freely throughout this intricate landscape.