Exhibition Dates: March 5 – 26, 2005
Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 5, 6– 8 pm
Gallery Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present “Specimens,” an exhibition of recent mixed media work by Mary Jane Parker. The exhibition will be on view from March 5 – 26, 2005 in the rear gallery of the Arthur Roger Gallery at 432 Julia Street. The artist will be in attendance at the opening reception for the exhibition on Saturday, March 6th from 6 to 8pm.
“Specimens” includes sculpture made of bronze, glass, wood and ceramic which reference history, medicine and botany. The prints in the show are done with encaustic providing them with a translucent surface quality. The medical reference in the title “Specimens” is deliberate and is inspired by the many comparisons or references to the human body and the natural world in Mary Jane Parker”s body of work. The exhibition includes a grouping of small panels that are “specimens” of the artist’s favorite images: stars, plant roots, blood vessels, pebbles, etc.
Mary Jane Parker is fascinated by the many intrinsic similarities she finds in the natural world as in her realization that the root of a plant serves a similar purpose to the intestines in the human body. For the artist the complexity and mystery of the stars and the distant galaxies and a satellite picture of that vastness resembles a microscopic image of our blood cells. In her work Mary Jane Parker explores natural affinities and draws attention to the unity that exists between our humanity and the world we inhabit.
Mary Jane Parker received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University and her Master of Fine Arts from Illinois State University. She is the recipient of a NEA fellowship award. She resides in New Orleans and teaches at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts.
For additional information please contact the Arthur Roger Gallery at 504.522.1999 or visit our Web site www.arthurrogergallery.com.