OAS | AMA F STREET GALLERY

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Primal Connections:
Paintings by Deanna Schwartzberg


On view January 28 - March 6, 2015
By appointment only, Mon-Fri from 9am to 5pm

Please call 202-370-0151

Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 6pm
(no appointment necessary)

OAS AMA | F STREET GALLERY
Organization of American States
1889 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006



ABOUT THE EXHIBITION


Deanna Schwartzberg’s passionate concern for the environment and keen awareness of the destructive forces that threaten our ability to live in harmony with nature has been the impetus of her work for many years.  Rather than focusing on these destructive forces, her art expresses a binding relationship with the earth that reinforces our best judgments. To quote Jacques Cousteau; “We must love something before we can protect it.” Schwartzberg’s paintings speak to that love.                                    

In the paintings of Deanna Schwartzberg, we enter a world of color and light that inspires us to contemplate the shared presence of humanity and the natural world.   A figure, often of life size proportions, merges with elements of nature, creating an energy that flows throughout. In the painting “Splush” one senses the wetness of a garden, the darkened silhouettes of abstracted flowers, and the splayed luxuriating of the female form; her face in shadow and locked in its own repose. On further examination the figure does not completely separate from the landscape; Its legs and torso suggesting organic elements as well.  Throughout her work, elements of nature combine with body to reaffirm her belief that humankind and the environment are inseparable. Her work compels us to reexamine our relationship with the world that surrounds us.

This exhibition includes the poem Primal Connections by Deanna Schwartzberg. In it she once again uses a feminine voice, her own, to express our connection to the natural world. The paintings don’t illustrate the poem as much as find their own poetic rhythm to further illuminate the flux and flow of humanity and the natural world.

Poet Molly Peacock has written that “each time any of us reads a favorite poem, it conjures a special sorcery of second sight- and third, and fourth, until our understanding becomes so profound that we are returned to a state before we even had language-a pre-linguistic place." Ascano contends that viewing Schwartzberg's work offers this kind of sensuous pleasure. 

This exhibit is presented in conjunction with the Department of Sustainable Development (DSD), the OAS unit responsible for supporting OAS member States in addressing environmental concerns to achieve inclusive sustainable development.


SELECTION OF WORKS


Onatah (2014) by Deanna Schwartzberg. Acrylic on canvas, 14x11 in.

 


Lost and Found (2014) by Deanna Schwartzberg. Acrylic on canvas, 60x34 in.

 


Naia (2014) by Deanna Schwartzberg. Acrylic on canvas, 14x11 in.

 


Aeris (2014) by Deanna Schwartzberg. Acrylic on canvas, 14x11 in.