From the Curator
Dear Viewer,
Welcome to RELIEF, an exhibition to help take you away. It’s safe to say that no matter wherever you are in the world, no matter what you are currently experiencing, you might be in need of a little relief. This collection of works will provide any kind of relief you may need, all thanks to phenomenal artists from all around the world.
RELIEF is a show that reminds us not only of the importance of finding somewhere to escape or something to take us away, but that this kind of relief is something that can be created whenever needed. Relief can be painted, drawn, sculpted, or captured for ourselves and for others. Based on the record number of responses we received to our call for this show, relief is currently being created around the world quite a bit, and it is much needed.
Artists are not the only ones capable of creating relief, it can be done by anyone, the best way being by providing what you can for others. If you find yourself inspired by the collection below and would like to create some relief yourself, here are some excellent places to start:
Enjoy the show and don’t forget to check out our corresponding exhibition HEAT!
-S
Ana Trifunovic
Serbia
Between Land and Sky
45 x 70 cm
“Between land and sky” is an artist’s book that can be leafed through in many ways and can be disassembled into several forms. It is drawn in white and black ink on tinted paper and illustrates an imaginary landscape. It illustrates an imaginary landscape which I find calming. Cool tones give this illustration an interesting atmosphere.
Rolanda Jongerius
Hilversum, The Netherlands
Biophilia
Gouache on Canson paper A3 Gouache on black paper A4
Biophilia, the title of these paintings, is about the human need to care about and to connect with nature. In times of physical and mental stress it helps us and reliefs to go outside, and focus on natural aspects, to get us out of our worried minds. Joni Mitchell sings about a ‘tree museum’, and the fact that ‘we don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone’, the awareness of needing trees to breathe and against heating up our climate and being in nature as a relief of daily live struggles. Nowadays with corona it can be impossible to go outside. Still it’s possible to focus on these little things in nature, by images or sounds of nature in music for instance. In my paintings I play with the suggestion of nature. If you look more closely you see that it’s not painting by nature, during the process the minds brings us wherever we want to be.
Maja Pozar
Berlin, Germany
Umbra
Digital Photography
The style of my photography is very much so a continuation of my minimalist fine art works – modest, plain, and quiet. I believe we’re the ones who provide the stories. Events, products, and symbols don’t arise with the story and the meaning built in. My photographs therefore intentionally lack statement; they’re just an aesthetically pleasing sight in a vacuum. I neither need nor want to provide questions, ideas, and conclusions – just a quiet, melancholic haven from the overwhelming and ever present narrative.
Chinda Smith
London
Dancing in the Rain
60 x 40 cm
Relief is a reaction to pain. I often find myself escaping the harsh realities of the world that we live in to reflect on those elements that seem untouchable to the individual. Here, I depict a childhood memory, dancing in the cool rain at night, whilst others shelter themselves, weary of the brutality of the irrational weather that persists in this increasingly uncertain sphere. I use pathetic fallacy to indicate that there is a sense of joy in relief. Rain is essential to life, in all forms. Sometimes all a person needs is to feel rain drops falling in their face.
Taylor Yingshi
Seattle
A Sustainable Future
16 x 20″
Inspired by my visit to the Volunteer Park Conservatory, my painting depicts a girl turning back as she walks towards a pale sunlight. Dark blue, almost black vines become warm green in the sun as they entangle in a brush dotted with pink flowers. The lush forestry reflects my home state’s beautiful abundance of flora and fauna, an idyllic picture of what the future of the entire planet could look like if we reversed our wasteful habits. While other figures fade into the background, the girl is the focal point of the painting similar to how my generation takes center stage in the fight for climate justice. As we walk along this path to climate restoration, we make sure to turn back and check that nobody is left behind.
Zach Brown
West Henrietta, New York
Digital Photograph
Relief was an easier theme for me to decide what to submit. Water always brings me relief and a sense of calm. being at a lake, ocean, the pool, etc. is my happy place. and I have incorporated those settings and themes into some of my work over time.
Samantha Wood
New York, NY
Dyptych
Diptych: Acrylic paint, gold pen, paper. 36″ x 40″
Diptych Left Side: Acrylic paint, gold pen, paper. 17″ x 40″
Samantha Tai Wood is a mixed media artist in New York City. Her work translates into visual form the dichotomy between reveling in a solitary moment and exploring the interconnectedness of the human experience. Her preoccupation with confronting the limitations inherent in methods of human connection leads to work that honors this predicament through specificity of medium without losing sight of the viewer’s placement within the exchange or the visibility of the artist’s hand creating the piece. Growing up as a biracial woman, Samantha could almost see the barriers between herself and the antagonistic communities around her. This, coupled with a predilection for solitude, engendered a general sense detachment and an awareness of the silent exchange of effort required to bridge it. Her mixed-media paintings and drawings distill this ephemeral exchange into tangible, more clarified, intimate reenactments that leave room for silent reflection on one’s relationship to the work and, as a result, one’s relationship to others.
Anastasia Krivolapova
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bottle Up
4 x 8 x 3 cm
Ceramics and Porcelain
Many areas of human existence are heated nowadays. Stress, overworking, sleep deprivation and interpersonal conflicts might lead to development of psychological disorders. Which causes psychological as well as physical symptoms, particularly crying. Crying signals to yourself and other people that there’s some important problem that is at least temporarily beyond your ability to cope. However the most important factor is the positive effect—the release—enough time to sink in. Tear bottles or tear catchers appeared in Roman times and were used to show the importance and significance of the person filled bottle was given to. Making a modern interpretation of this item I was aiming to create a helper, a buddy who would awake good emotions and support the person in hard moments of his or her life.
Val Stangoe
Ulverston, Cumbria
Slowly the Sand Flows
Oil over acrylic
610 x 305mm
I washed up on Morecambe Bay at 50, a nomad since 17. Unexpectedly I took root like seaweed and find this shore as my home.
It’s been a complicated twelve months in the hospice where I work and repetitively painting the horizon of the Bay sooths my soul and renews me for the fray. For me this is one of a handful of views that underpin my art.
Deborah Eve Alastra
Portland, Oregon
Maisha’s Garden
acrylic on canvas 30×30″
A positive element of the current pandemic is many are returning closer to their ‘roots’; planting gardens, cooking more, baking more, writing and creating more…. Sheltering in place has helped to clear the air and wild animals are allowed to live comfortably in their habitat. Perhaps we can learn something from this horror and develop more respect for the earth which will help us prevent another disaster. Painting submitted is of my neighbor’s amazing garden.
Ivana Bianca
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Funke
110cm x 70cm
“Most of us just need a little relief, a moment to breathe, compose ourselves, and revitalize our spirits.” When I read this within the theme of this section, I immediately thought about the picture I painted recently. The place I paint is inspired by the nature where I always vacation here in Argentina, called “Funke”. This is why I want to show you this painting, a place in nature where I feel in complete peace and protection.
Emily Shih
Taiwan
Plucking Lotus 2. Spring Outing
Medium: Acrylic on canvas. Dimension: 72.5 x 91 cm
Spring Outing-This painting is depict the spring scenery of Jiangnan In March. In this season when the wind and the sun are fragrant with flowers and plants, tourists are walking along the willow breeze and the canoe shuttled through the ancient bridges in the water lanes. The ancient town composed of white wall, small bridges and flowing water, there is no bustling noisy and crowd, only a kind of quiet and peaceful feeling. The painting shows the typical characteristics of the water town, with full composition, elegant and bright colors, the backlight perspective increases the spatial sense, depth and visual tension of the picture. Plucking Lotus-This painting depicts boating in the lotus pond in summer, picking lotus flowers, and the breeze blowing on the face, which makes people feel refreshed and relaxed.
Jared Neto
Toronto, Canada
Forest Breeze
Oil on Canvas, 20″ x 30″
My work Forest Breeze is all about evoking the cool calmness of a walk through the forest, as an escape from the heat. The painting’s setting is based on a large park nearby that I have been painting often recently. With this piece I really wanted to explore representing skin tones and traditionally warm painting subject matter (portraits), with a cool palette.
Marion Smallbones
Cape Town, South Africa
Urban River
297 x 420mm, acrylic on canvas
‘Urban River’ captures the moment of stepping out of a shopping mall, to breathe fresh air and get some space, after the stress of queuing, negotiating people and social distancing.
Shereene Fogenay
Las Vegas, Nevada
See my Words
Water soluble pencils and ink
I am an artist and docent based in Las Vegas Nevada. I work in Gallery management and enjoy teaching the community about art history. Understanding Art history and history as a whole has continued to strengthen me as an artist. The mediums I work with include acrylic, ink, and water soluble pencils.I am inspired my essence of what it means to be a” person of color” in this world. My work focuses on my Guyanese heritage and expressions of people of color. I enjoy the idea of showing the Black community conveying dynamic expressions. I believe that in our society, black expression is not always received well or even accepted. I allow my work to express my identity and the hopes I have of open expression for all people of color.
Nancy Tompkins
Jersey City, NJ
Self Portrait in Front of My House
6 x 6
Acrylic on wood panel
Although a self portrait is by definition personal, my goal is to make mine less so by painting myself as part of an environment rather than as the main subject. I’m interested in the notion of viewing myself from the outside going about my daily life, not posing for the viewer but being seen in passing.
I work from life, photographs, and memory. My paintings are a visual diary.
I work in New York City and live in Jersey City. This painting is about the relief I feel at the end of the day after the work and the noise and the commute… the anticipation of walking up the steps to the front door, stepping inside, and closing the door.
Francesca Alaimo
London
You don’t see Me but here I Am
mixed media on paper print
I am an Italian artist based in London. I create interventions on paper through manipulation and transformation of materials and images.
My work is an exploration of identity, vulnerability and courage. My subjects have accepted that they are not meant to fit in but to stand out, and provocatively reveal the emotional layers of their traumas to those who dare to look closely. They have arrived at that irreversible place where they to take the world on and reveal their truth in order to achieve relief from their pain. In my exploration about gender identity the only thing that is clear is that nothing is clearly defined and that (self)perceptions and feelings coexist and battle at all times. What really goes on under the surface can be ambiguous and yet definite, contradictory and yet consistent. It is an act of courage and extreme vulnerability to disclose one’s hidden self to the world knowing that others might not understand the nuances of it all. It is, however, necessary if one wants to start a dialogue towards (self)acceptance, visibility and self-affirmation.
Lauren Shantall
Cape Town
Landed/ Grounded
Acrylic on canvas, with each canvas measuring no larger than 50 x 70cm
South Africa has endured one of the most stringent COVID-19 lockdowns on the planet, with extreme regulations, early curfews, and the threat of police brutality if restrictions are not adhered to. As our economy crumbles, reports of starvation – of children eating wild plants in the rural areas, and hospitals reporting malnutrition cases – have surfaced. This is coupled with allegations of corruption and misdirected funds, funds meant to offer our people relief from hunger. Public protests are snuffed with water cannons. Viewed from a distance, it is dystopia. Only recently have South Africans been able to return to leisure pursuits – such as driving into the country – but we cannot leave our provinces. I crave relief and liberty. The benign, impassive aspect of mountains has offered me respite. The enduring aspect of the land grounds me and so forms the focus of this work, which is imbued with abstracted rather realistic colour. The colour is a device that allows some entry into my emotional and joyful response to the landscape.
Eylül Elönü
İstanbul, Turkey
Fine Line
oil on canvas
This painting is about calming down a little bit after an emotional rush. It is about figuring out the thoughts and emotions that heats you up; and finally have some relief and belief that everything is going to be okay. That’s why i think this piece is perfect for this theme.
Thais Lenkiewicz
Plymouth, UK
Look Higher, Look Higher!
oil on board, 30×40
My paintings aim to explore the world through varied collated source materials collaged or grouped together like stolen stills from films. They consider our domesticated vs primitive identities through our relationship with the natural world, the internet, and each other. I collect images from the internet, the news, television, and take my own photographs. These collections and the way they’re selectively juxtaposed may build up a picture of how we see ourselves. Or perhaps they build a picture of how an alien species or distant civilisation may see us.
Teuta Pashnjari
Tampere, Finland
Feeling Blue
Watercolor, mixed media on paper A5
“Feeling BLUE” is a series about emotional sadness and lack of energy.
“With this series I want to virtually engage in with other emotional people by pointing out that crying is the body’s way to reduce but also process emotional stress, therefore it is needed. We live in a world where there is so much happening and where social media promotes negativity rather than positivity, a fact that has affected our emotions and our lives. A good thing to do is let everything happen, sadness and happiness, then simply move on by welcoming new emotions.”
This twofold exhibit is stunning, provocative, and brilliant. Thanks and appreciation to the curators at VacantMuseum!
Wonderful show!
Stunning artwork! Inspired theme and, viewing “Heat” first and then “Relief” gives me sense that all can be healed in the midst of challenging circumstances. The human heart is resilient. Thank you all for sharing your gifts of creation!