| Paintings, Drawings, Photography & Sculpture
by 3 World Class Circus Performers and 5 Other Artists Fascinated with Circus John Kahn Bill Moran A. Kovazsky Molly Sawyer Philippe Petit Michael Moschen Peter Angelo Simon Karen E. Gersch (Curator) October 21 – December 16, 2007 (closed Saturday Nov. 3rd – PICCOLO CIRCUS – see details!) +OPENING RECEPTION Sunday, October 21 4-6pm ~ stilt-dancer, juggler, hurdy gurdy & refreshments ~ free and open to the public Join Us for 3 Special Events! |
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WELCOME to my favorite place – the round world – where flight, risk, and comedy pirouette. From the back lot to the center ring, it’s an empire full of visual heroism. While its artists possess a vitality that seems superhuman, their movements and skills appear effortless. This world is filled with a fiery energy borne from the dynamic poetics of each performance. It does what it does as it has for centuries: enthralls and enchants with acts that defy gravity and define true grace. Beneath the tent, between sequins and sawdust, there always swings a visual impact of color, line and light; from the communion of acrobats midway in flight to the complex simplicity of clowns. From the moment before an aerialist descends to the jubilant balance of dancers on wire. It is this suspense and magic that the artists here strive to capture. To depict not just the craft, but to invoke the power and passion, the beauty and mystery that makes circus such a vital entity. It’s a fitting communion of artistries: transforming actions to images. The sorcery of bodies in air re-sung as colors, lines and shapes through sculpture, drawings, paintings, prints, photography. The artists represented here have developed their own distinct styles and means of paying homage to the circus world. Two of the artists – Philippe Petit and Michael Moschen – best known and acclaimed as gifted performers, have expanded and translated their physical art into the visual realm. In drawings and paintings I have chronicled and described life in the circuses that I have traveled with, performed in (as an acrobat, juggler and clown), and seen over the past 40 years. The five other artists have cultivated a fascination with circus, finding news ways of capturing the dynamic motion and intense emotion, the light and color, the gravity and grace of the enduring, entertaining, inspiring circus. Karen E. Gersch, Special Guest Curator |
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| Montage Images (clockwise from top)
“Aerial Split” © Peter Angelo Simon, photograph “Cradle Catch” © Karen E. Gersch, gouache on canvas “Mask” © Michael Moschen, metal screen “With the Greatest of Ease” ©Bill Moran, acrylic “Power of One” ©Molly Sawyer, bonded bronze images are copyrighted and artists reserve all rights Title Image: “Takeo Usui, 1955” © Karen E. Gersch, graphite on paper |