WOMENS INSTITUTE GALLERY, DIANE KAHLOE ART EXHIBITION!
by: Dan Barton, Publisher of New Harmony Gazette
While I don’t consider myself an art critic by any stretch of the imagination, I have seen and purchased enough art in my life to know quality when I see it.
Lena Feiner runs and owns the “Womens Institute Gallery†at 916 Granary Street. Since I’ve known her, just shortly after I came to New Harmony in 2014, she’s always had top quality artists and art work on display and for sale in her gallery. I don’t know the total number of pieces I’ve purchased from Lena in past years, but because she has such an eye for abstract art, I’ve been lucky enough to find some good ones to take home.
Recently I paid a visit to her studio to view her latest show by Mexican/Ameican Artist Diane Kahloe, which will be on exhibit until Labor Day. Ms. Kahloe grew up in sunny California but currently lives in the Blue Grass State, Kentucky. If you are not familiar with the art that emanates from the Mexican/Mezo-American culture you are in for a treat. At first you may find the connection with death a little shocking, but when you realize it, Americans have always celebrated the passing of our ancestors in one form of memorial art or another. Take the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial for instance, those names were inscribed so that we do not forget them and what they sacrificed in the name of our freedoms. Much the same phenomenon happened in NYC following the 9/11 Trade Center terrorist attacks. People would post pictures of their loved ones for months following the attack all over NYC asking if anyone had seen the person they loved and who had clearly perished. It’s a way of reuniting or bringing back our lost ones to us.
In Ms. Kahloe’s art she is memorializing or immortalizing the unfortunate lost lives of young women who are forever missing or were brutally slain by predatory men, in and around Juarez, Mexico. In fact the display is called in Spanish, “Las Desaparecidas De Ciudad Juarez!†The Women’s Institute Gallery is calling it the “Wall of Memories!†In Spanish it simply means “The Missing Ones of the City of Juarez!†The Wall of Memories is a wall of small oil on canvas portraits, excellently done, of 150 of the women who fell victim to this unrevenged violence.
If you have a seat in front of the geometric gallery of portraits, over several minutes of concentration, it will have a mesmerizing effect. Each of the little portraits are for sale and for only $75, which I thought was a very reasonable price for the fine workmanship involved. On each framed portrait is the name of the young woman in the portrait.
Diane Kahloe writes, “ Throughout history, typically only those of wealthy or noble birth were immortalized through portraiture. I have chosen to paint the portraits in the form of a small Icon to memorialize the young women whose social and economic status would not typically be the subject of a painted portrait.â€
There are also other much larger works on display by Diane Kahloe, works of geometric design, which are so intricate in their detail that for the average non-artist person such as myself, it baffles the mind how anyone could do them. She also has a life-size oil painting in the gallery of “Our Lady of Guadalupe,†Mexico’s Patron Saint. Life-Size and Life Like! A must see. A real masterpiece!
Be sure to stop by The Women’s Institute Gallery at 916 Granary Street! You won’t be disappointed! I wasn’t! It’s art at its best!
