Awak­en­ing: The Art of Ursula Schwartz
July 30 — Octo­ber 27, 2013
This intro­spec­tive exhibit fea­tures a sam­pling of large-scale oil paint­ings cre­ated by con­tem­po­rary artist Ursula Schwartz. Born in Nel­spruit, South Africa, she expresses her unique South African per­spec­tive through bold col­ors, enteric brush strokes, and inti­mate por­traits and fig­u­ra­tive work. Poetry writ­ten by the artist and her young son will accom­pany each paint­ing. Schwartz’s paint­ings reflect the com­plex nature of mod­ern fem­i­nin­ity, and por­tray an ele­gant jux­ta­po­si­tion of power and vul­ner­a­bil­ity. Her work has been exhib­ited, sold, and col­lected in South Africa, Europe, and the USA.


The Holy Art of Impe­r­ial Rus­sia: Icons from the 17th C. –Early 20th C.
Novem­ber 5, 2013– April 13, 2014 
 The sacred images on view in this exhi­bi­tion are of a kind once read­ily found in even the hum­blest homes of Rus­sia, as well as its churches and pub­lic shrines. Centuries-old artis­tic con­ven­tions are jux­ta­posed with new, West­ern­ized for­mal ele­ments and ver­nac­u­lar inter­pre­ta­tions of these new forms. For Ortho­dox Rus­sians, icons served as more than just reli­gious paint­ings; they were relic-like objects directly linked to the holy fig­ures they depicted.  They were seen as com­forters  and pow­er­ful guardians. Icons were the direct line from the real world to the spir­i­tual and appeared every­where in pre-Soviet Russia.The exhi­bi­tion will be on loan from Hollingsworth Fine Art.