in focus

Central Ohio understands the importance of keeping art alive, even during a pandemic. Between emergency artists’ grants provided by the Greater Columbus Arts Council and galleries hosting virtual shows, people are rallying together to uphold the arts, including the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster.

In May, DACO was set to open 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artists. As of early May, the exhibit was postponed to June and center staff say it may get pushed back again or become virtual. Regardless, the show will go on.

“It is important to support the artists and arts organizations all the time, but especially during times of turmoil,” says Christine Fowler Shearer, curator for 2 + 3 x 18.

The exhibit showcases works inspired by ancient diptychs and triptychs, pieces once used to commemorate the victory of a ruler, or for personal or religious reasons. The featured pieces tell personal stories, making for a diverse show.

Here’s a glimpse into the creative minds of four featured artists based in central Ohio. Their methods, mediums and styles are different, yet when displayed together, Fowler Shearer promises unity.

Fourteen years ago, Julie Abijanac was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Her first question wasn’t about cancer treatments though. Instead, she asked what art materials she could still use that wouldn’t compromise her health.

Poumon Noir by Julie Abijanac

“I had to reinvent myself as a maker,” she says. “I’ve been making since I was very young and it’s part of who I am as a person.”

Thankfully, working with textiles and paper was safe. Pestilence: Stage I, Stage II and Stage III by Julie Abijanac

Abijanac is now cancer free, and her textile and paper sculptures are responses to battling and coping with cancer. She explores other mediums and medical conditions – Pestilence: Stage I, Stage II and Stage III features faux pearls, and Pou

mon Noir represents lung cancer, which she created after a family friend was diag- nosed with the disease. Both are triptychs displayed in 2 + 3 x 18.

The artwork can be controversial – people have thanked Abijanac for finding beauty in diseases and others have ac- cused her of glorifying the topic. Abijanac leaves her art open to interpretation, but she hopes people see her dedication to creating the pieces.

Her artist statement reads: “Close up, the three-dimensional decorative and tex- tural qualities are elegantly graceful, but also intricately complex, just as life itself is at once lush and beautiful in the face of an utterly unpredictable future.”

Terrie Albanese fell in love with mo- saics while touring churches and cathe- drals in Italy. Once home, she traveled to Miami, Florida, to study under an art- ist who learned classical mosaics at the Vatican. But when Albanese showed her mentor her illustrations, the feedback was shocking.

Beside Quiet Waters 1 by Terri Albanese

“She said, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to work,’” Albanese says. “I was a bit miffed, actually.”

Albanese designs on a diagonal and cuts the glass pieces into long, slender shards. The Miami-based teacher encouraged her to explore this method though, instead of conforming to classical mosaics.

“If someone is going to push you, and it’s for your good, let them push you and be true to who you are,” she says. “Once I started setting the pieces, I just knew, it was like magic – this is where I belong.”

Her glass paintings are mostly in- spired by flowers and are sometimes abstract, sometimes realistic. Albanese hopes the pieces bring joy and hope to viewers. She recalls feedback from a hos- pital patient who viewed her sunflower piece displayed at The James Art Gallery.

“(The patient) looked at the painting … and said, ‘I’m sorry, this is the first time I’ve walked on my own in two years,’ she had tears coming down her face and she said, ‘This piece is cheerfully beautiful.’” Albanese says.

For 2 + 3 x 18, Albanese is showcas- ing two abstract triptychs featuring vari- ous white flowers and sun-glazed leaves.

While viewing the twodimensional works from Agnes Ray’s Dark Pools for a Gilded Age series, it’s normal to feel a sense of eeriness. The black pond where swans swim, the dark liquid pouring from the fancy fountains, it all explores the “wealth, its legacy in American history, and the boundaries between public and private life.”

“My goal always with my practice is to try to present these ideas or distill them down in the most elegant way,” Ray says, explaining that “elegant” doesn’t always mean “beautiful.”

For 2 + 3 x 18, Ray is displaying two pieces from Dark Pools: a diptych titled A Pair of Swan Pairs and a triptych called Descending Fountains. The five featured photographs were taken by the late Frances Benjamin Johnston and later colored by the late Grace Adele Smith Anderson. Ray added the black paint.

“I almost feel as though I’m collaborating with two other women from 100 years ago,” Ray says.

Ray says the properties in the images were owned by wealthy families and are now public properties, a theme she explores which coincides with her research into income inequality. Even though the artwork is complex with many symbolic aspects, Ray hopes people view the pieces and question: At what cost did we obtain and now preserve these intricate architectures?

Descending Fountains by Agnes Ray

Melissa Vogley Woods works with multiple mediums, but for 2 + 3 x 18 she’s displaying five three-dimensional pieces that explore time.

“There is a deconstructed composi- tion that you wander around in, so you’re a little bit lost,” Vogley Woods says. “That’s how I see time. When you look back, there is a lot of confusion and manipulation and what you actually see is a circumstance of power dynamics because so much has been erased or not told.”

The displayed works feature scagliola – a now rare artistic process that works with fine plaster, it’s best known for mim- icking marble – that lay on the ground like ruins. She hopes people feel a sense of un- clarity and falling apart.

“I do hope (patrons) get a sense of history,” Vogley Woods says, “that’s in rela- tion to a struggle, and I think that comes across in the figuration. And also, that there’s some sense of erasure or overlap, and that’s a condition people navigate.”

Vogley Woods recently showcased Al- ways, a multimedia piece in which she used house windows to display a textile fabric designed by artist Raoul Dufy in 1920, the year the Spanish flu pandem- ic ended. The design was best viewed at night or dusk and was activated by a flash- light or camera flash.

“I’m repeating that pattern to show we have been through this before and we can learn from the past,” she says. “We can overcome this.”

For the latest updates on 2 + 3 x 18: Diptychs and Triptychs by 18 Contemporary Ohio Artist, visit www.decartsohio.org.

Lydia Freudenberg is an editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@ cityscenemediagroup.com.

Folded in Time by Melissa Vogley Woods

Folded in Time 2 by Melissa Vogley Woods