Raquel Paiewonsky
“im propia”
 
June 20 – July 14, 2013
 
Curated by Robert P. Stack
 
Opening Reception:
Thursday, June 20, 2013, 5PM – 9PM
 
Gallery Hours:
Thursday + Friday, 3PM – 8PM
Saturday + Sunday, 12PM – 5PM
Other days by appointment
 
Yellow Peril Gallery is pleased to present “im propia”, a solo exhibition of video, performance, photography and installation work by Dominican Republic based artist Raquel Paiewonsky, curated by Robert P. Stack.
 
“im propia” speaks of humanity and freedom, through a corporeal symbolism that embodies our experience in the social context but always with an important reference to our natural and instinctive self. Paiewonsky uses the body as a platform that allows her from an intimate place to approach broader topics ranging from social, philosophical or political. In this exhibition she explores personal relationships, childhood, love, stereotypes, nature, diversity.
 
“I have always been interested in the body as a vessel capable of containing our life experiences within itself, sometimes in mysterious and subtle ways, other times more forcefully.” explains Paiewonsky. “In recent years, my work explores the relationship between our essence and our surroundings, the impact of stereotypes and cultural constructions, always taking as a reference our instinctual selves and the ways in which the primal component of our nature is affected by the new and ever changing contexts of contemporary life.”
 
Although seldom conveying violence explicitly, Paiewonsky’s work is very much concerned with the veiled but insidious violence that permeates the personal, social and political systems in which we live.
 
The opening reception for “im propia” is on Thursday, June 20 from 5PM – 9PM during Gallery Night Providence. The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, July 14, 2013.
About Raquel Paiewonsky RAQUEL PAIEWONSKY moved to New York in 1991 to continue her art studies in Parsons School of Design and stayed there for 10 years. In 2001 she returned to Santo Domingo where she currently lives and works. Her work has traveled across the globe. It explores human body, urban life, social constructs and social issues. For more information, visit www.raquelpaiewonsky.com.
 
About Yellow Peril Gallery YELLOW PERIL GALLERY is a contemporary art gallery located at The Plant, a historic mill complex in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The Gallery strives to foster modern art critiques on popular culture and society from emerging and mid-career artists in the United States and abroad. We aspire to exhibit provocative and visually arresting artwork created specifically to ignite conversations long after viewers have left the building. Artists that we represent share our commitment to social responsibility, and a percentage from the sale of all artwork is donated to a charitable organization of the Artists’ choice. For more info about future exhibitions, visit www.yellowperilgallery.com.
 

If you’d like more information about this press release, or to schedule an interview with Raquel Paiewonsky, please contact Robert P. Stack at +1 718 501 8766 or via e-mail at robert@yellowperilgallery.com.

Yellow Peril Gallery is pleased to present PRE-EXISTING CONDITION, a solo exhibition featuring photographs and collage works by Kathryn Parker Almanas, opening Thursday, July 18, 2013, during Gallery Night Providence. PRE-EXISTING CONDITION investigates destruction and healing within the body and the terrors and pleasures of embodiment.
Using ingredients found in delectable pastries, Almanas creates and photographs visceral tableaux of surrogate organs that explore destruction, digestion and healing. “Seduction is another aspect present in the anatomical imagery from PRE-EXISITING CONDITION,” suggests Curator Robert P. Stack. “One is simultaneously drawn to the salacious appearance of the edible material, while repulsed by the seemingly disemboweled carnage of boldly colored still lifes evoking life’s more unpleasant realities. All of the senses are sharply awakened at once.”
“As an artist, I am dedicated to the expression of the human condition; what it means to be alive existing within our skin, the sensations of embodiment, and the relationship between the ethereal and corporeal,” states Almanas
By constructing her visceral tableaux and surrogate organs with dough, jelly, fruit juices, white cloth and women’s tights, Almanas’s photography plays with how we recognize ourselves in textures and materials; dough and jelly act as viscera, while light evokes both a surgical and divine gaze.
"I flirt with and subvert the genre of still life from both historical painting and contemporary editorial photography to evoke an anatomical perspective and awareness of the body,” she notes, adding, “Sweet objects, that could potentially be consumed, act as surrogate body parts. The fleshy forms lie, hang, and nestle within these explicit scenes, both seducing and disgusting the viewer. The images provoke sensations of pain and pleasure, creating an intimate tension.”
The collage works in PRE-EXISTING CONDITION were made prior to and during the making of the photographed visceral tableaux. “Creating theses collages opened a way for me to clarify my thoughts, concepts, and materials for the photographs I constructed,” Almanas explains. “I discovered that collage was a way for me to think, but also a form and medium I want to pursue and evolve in my practice as an artist.”
The opening reception for PRE-EXISTING CONDITION is Thursday, July 18, from 5PM – 9PM during Gallery Night Providence. The exhibition will be on display until Sunday, August 11, 2013. Almanas‘s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, and Philadelphia. This is her first solo exhibition in Providence at Yellow Peril Gallery.
 
About Kathryn Parker Almanas KATHRYN PARKER ALMANAS earned a BFA in Photography from MassArt in 2003 and a MFA in Photography from Yale University in 2007. While at Yale, she was awarded the Schickle-Collingwood Prize, and upon receiving her MFA, was the recipient of the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship to conduct research on the history of anatomical dissection in Italy. Her work has been published in 25 Under 25 Up-and-Coming American Photographers, Photo District News, Metropolis, to name a few. She has created art on commission basis for New York Magazine, Time, Details, Culture+Travel, among other magazines. Almanas’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, and Philadelphia. Her photographs and collage work investigate destruction and healing within the body and the terrors and pleasures of embodiment, often drawing ideas from the medical world. For more info about Kathryn Parker Almanas, visit kathrynparkeralmanas.com.
About Yellow Peril Gallery YELLOW PERIL GALLERY is a contemporary art gallery located at The Plant, a historic mill complex in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The Gallery strives to foster modern art critiques on popular culture and society from emerging and mid-career artists in the United States and abroad. We aspire to exhibit provocative and visually arresting artwork created specifically to ignite conversations long after viewers have left the building. Artists that we represent share our commitment to social responsibility, and a percentage from the sale of all artwork is donated to a charitable organization of the Artists’ choice. For more info about future exhibitions, visit www.yellowperilgallery.com.

If you’d like more information about this press release, or to schedule an interview with
KATHRYN PARKER ALMANAS, please contact Robert P. Stack at +1 718 501 8766 or via e-mail at robert@yellowperilgallery.com.