About SDP
Review from Mark Jenkins, " The Discerning Eye"on Substack
Mark Jenkins
March 31, 2025
Brandon Hill, Schroeder Cherry, and Chukwudinma Nsofor journey from Nigeria to Brazil to the Old West. Also: Susan Due Pearcy's poignant prints and Pyramid Atlantic's packed member show
MAR 31, 2025
Susan Due Pearcy, "Ashes to Ashes -- Exit" (Pyramid Atlantic Art Center)
AFTER HER HUSBAND'S DEATH, Susan Due Pearcy decided to "let go" by burning medical documents. Despite the flames, she found, some words remained legible. This inspired her to incorporate the ashes and surviving shards of text into handmade paper that she then used for prints and drawings. Eight of these rough-textured artworks are on exhibit at the National Institutes of Health as "Ashes to Ashes -- A Caregiver's Journey."
As inventive as they are poignant, the pictures both document her husband's cancer-treatment experiences and embody visions of hope and rebirth. Drawings of birds and actual leaves are embedded into the craggy, partly scorched paper. The material itself -- damaged, mutable, only partly reclaimed -- is fascinating and touching.
It's possible to see the show at NIH, but gaining admittance is complicated. It would be simpler to view the one piece from the series that's at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, where "Ashes to Ashes -- Exit" is included in "Member MashUP." The etching-drawing-collage is perhaps the most somber entry in the exhibition, which was juried by Helen Frederick and contains work by more than 200 artists.
Any attempt to review this jam-packed show would simply produce a glorified list. The range is vast, from the geometric (Katherine Bramante's colorful collage of overlapping striped squares; Sally Canzoneri's 3D folded-paper sculpture) to the organic (Sallie Lowenstein's photocarving of a nearly hidden bird; Elzbieta Sikorska's layered drawing of animal's head). Among the more remarkable items are Sarah Matthews's all-text letterpress print and Ann Stoddard's 3D photograph of an American flag inside a police evidence container. Like Pearcy, Stoddard renders ordinary things mysterious with crags, folds, and shadows.
Susan Due Pearcy: Ashes to Ashes -- A Caregiver's Journey
Through April 6 at National Institutes of Health, Building 10, West Gallery, First Floor, 10 Center Dr., Bethesda.
Member MashUP - Through April 20 at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, 4318 Gallatin St., Hyattsville. pyramidatlanticartcenter.org. 301-608-9101.
Start WritingGet the appSubstack is the home for great culture
"Ashes to ASHES- A CAREDGIVER'S JOURNEY" NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, JAN. 12- APRIL 6, 2025
Experience the Creative Vision of SDP Art Gallery
