ANIMAL PAINTINGS
by Gina Sawin
Opening
Reception: Wednesday, May 16, 2001, 5:30-7:00
PM
Exhibition Dates: May
17 to June 21, 2001
As
the founding member of the American Association for
the Advancement and Appreciation of Animals in Art
and Architecture, Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern
welcomes a solo exhibition of oil paintings by Gina
Sawin in the Arsenal Gallery.
The painter's works on canvas are renderings of undomesticated animals depicted as inextricably linked to their natural habitat. Sawin's devoted observation and expressive interpretation of her subject evokes the passion of the naturalist. Relying on her craft as painter, Sawin uses pointillist brushwork to capture the blended splendor of wild animals and their serene environment.
Gina Sawin received her formal
art education at Parsons School of Design and 
has
worked as a graphic designer for the National Wildlife
Federation. Currently painting and residing in Maine,
she has had solo shows in Maine and in Washington
D.C.
Artist's Statement
When asked about the choice
of animals as subjects for my paintings, I resist
the temptation to answer dismissively, "why apples?"
or, for that matter, "why a landscape without animals?"
It is tempting to dismiss the question because for
me there is no question: I never consciously or strategically
decided upon these themes. I simply couldn't see or
think about anything else with the same interest.
I think that painters instinctively find the best
vehicle for, or the best way to sustain, their artistic
purpose. I, along with those who have taught and influenced
me, am interested in principles of abstraction as
they are manifested in representation. The formal
concerns, the spatial pushes and pulls across a flat
surface as well as painting's more poetic and symbolic
possibilities, can be as well explored via 
animals
as through any subject.
I certainly don't mean to suggest that these subjects are secondary to the formal concerns of painting. These paintings are clearly and undeniably about my love of animals but with the idea that harmonies in nature are echoed in the very language of painting. One could not separate the images in the prehistoric cave paintings from the spirit in which they were produced, and while my purpose is of course quite different from the motives of the cave painters, there is a reference in my work to the timelessness of the man/animal relationship. I think that relationship is ever relevant and compelling, and, as we become either better, or worse, stewards of the natural world, one that invites ongoing evaluation. The animals I paint are not scenery. Rather, in their solitary situations they are almost emblematic - the brushwork weaves them into their environments, while they quietly confront the viewer with the idea that the landscape is a shared space.
For more information about the gallery or this exhibit, please call the Public Arts Coordinator at 212.360.8163.