Donna Gordon Concord Art Association Exhibition Date: June 16 - July 17, 2022 VisionDoubleVisionDouble
An artist is only an artist on condition that he neglects no aspect of his dual nature. This dualism is the power of being oneself and someone else at one and the same time.
JENNIFER, WITH AND WITHOUT CAT. LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 18 INCHES, 2022
— Charles Baudelaire
COVER IMAGE, THE TWO FACES OF CAROL LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 18 INCHES, 2021
There is a dynamic flow between details of events that have occurred and the memories of them that we hold. Donna Gordon, in her printed impressions, transforms her personal photographs into dreamscapes of a world lost in Thetime.theme of duality belongs to the realm of contemporary printmaking. Although making multiples is intrinsic to the medium, printmakers still have the opportunity to create unique variations of an image that bring a slight shift in meaning. Often the differences between prints can be subtle. Integral to this process is the medium of photo transfer paper lithography, a method that can be unpredictable and changeable, when details disappear in favor of an overall sense of lapse, like a change in perspective. Her monotypes are a printmaker’s sensual feast of texture: rolled out tones, figurative shapes, and drips and splatters. In her layered narrative abstractions, Donna Gordon explores imagery that brings emotional weight to the idea of “otherness.” by Kate Hanlon
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FOREWORD
ARTIST’S NOTE Gordon
Donna
My sister Carol, a schizophrenic, had just died of liver cancer at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her passing inspired a kind of migratory wordless instinct to piece together a double-image, The Two Faces of Carol
BROKEN BEAUTY V, MONOTYPE, 20 X 29 INCHES, 2020
The lithographs and monotypes shown here are all part of an intimate story. I found myself looking backwards, examining self-portraits at different ages. My subjects are the strangers I’ve met in my travels who became friends, rescue horses encountered at an eco-horse sanctuary in Wyoming, landscapes that encircle or repeat--all of which retain a certain unknowability. Everywhere there is a spiral in the road that brings us back to what we strain to remember. I’m both a visual artist and a writer. These dual impulses are interwoven in a kind of outpouring I can’t measure. My visual art tells a story. My writing is built upon imagery.
I was introduced to paper lithography in 2020. The process of laser copying my black and white photographs onto pronto plates and then processing them via layers of liquid gum arabic, ink, and water brings the image to the surface before it’s passed through the press.
Nature likes duality. Much of the world exists in pairs. The idea of double vision and the fact of bilateral symmetry, are not new concepts. Pry open the shell of an acorn to see two perfectly divided halves. Unfold the wings of a butterfl y to see patterns perfectly replicated.
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I hope these images remind people that first impressions are not always correct, that we are multifaceted individuals resilient in our capacity, and that everything is worth a second look.
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 6 7 LUCY, LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 30 INCHES, 2022 4 HORSES OUTSIDE OF LARAMIE, WYOMING. LITHOGRAPH, 20 X 41 INCHES, 2021 SELF-PORTRAIT, LITHOGRAPH, 10 X 14 INCHES, 2021
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 8 9 FRESH POND, CAMBRIDGE . LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 18 INCHES, 2021 LOST IN THE WOODS I LITHOGRAPH, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2020 BROKEN BEAUTY III , MONOTYPE, 29 X 41 INCHES, 2020
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 10 11 MALE FIGURES, MONOTYPE, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2022 WYOMING RESCUE HORSES, MONOTYPE, 29 X 41 INCHES, 2020 SEPIA HORSES LITHOGRAPH, 10 X 12 INCHES, 2021
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 12 13 INCOGNITO, LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 18 INCHES, 2021 GRIEF. LITHOGRAPH, 15 X 29 INCHES, 2021 RESCUE HORSES COLLOGRAPH, 8 X 14 INCHES, 2022 OVERLOOK, LUCY VINCENT BEACH, CHILMARK. LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 18 INCHES, 2021
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 14 15 SELF-PORTRAIT LITHOGRAPH, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2021 ANTIQUE FIGURES , COLLOGRAPHS, 8 X 14 INCHES, 2021 VENICE BEACH , LITHOGRAPH, 15 X 29 INCHES, 2021
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 16 17 STOREFRONT MENAGERIE LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 27 INCHES, 2021 TWO HORSES , LITHOGRAPH, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2021 BOOKSTORE ALICE LITHOGRAPH, 12 X 18 INCHES, 2021
CONCORD ART ASSOCIATION Double Vision 18 19 TWO TREES, CHILMARK. LITHOGRAPH, 22 X 30, INCHES, 2021 LOST IN THE WOODS III , LITHOGRAPH, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2021
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BROKEN BEAUTY I, MONOTYPE, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2020
MOTHERHOOD DECONSTRUCTED, LITHOGRAPH, 10 X 12 INCHES, 2022
BIOGRAPHY
Donna Gordon is both a visual artist and a fiction writer. Her visual art is often driven by the desire to tell a story. Her work has been included in recent shows at the Danforth Art Museum, Cambridge Art Association, Fitchburg Art Museum, Bromfield Gallery, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Providence Art Club, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Union of Maine Visual Artists, Featherstone Gallery. Her work with Amnesty International and former political prisoners culminated in “Putting Faces on the Unimaginable: Portraits and Interviews with Former Prisoners of Conscience,” exhibited at Harvard’s Fogg Museum. She is represented by Galatea Fine Art, SOWA, Boston. Her debut novel, What Ben Franklin Would Have Told Me, was released on June 8th, 2022.
20th2019Annual Frances N. Roddy Open Competition, Concord Art Association, Juried Exhibition, September 12 – October Student-Teacher18 Show, Concord Art Association, July 11-August 11 Studies2018 and Sketches, a Drawing Exhibition, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, September 6-November 29, Putting19902018 Faces on the Unimaginable: Portraits and Interviews with Former Prisoners of Conscience, Fogg Museum, 1990 (15 silver gelatin photographs with Puttingcaptions)Faces on the Unimaginable: Portraits and Interviews with Former Prisoners of Conscience, Tufts University, Wessell Library, 1990 (15 silver gelatin photographs with captions) Putting Faces on the Unimaginable: Portraits and Interviews with Former Prisoners of Conscience, The French Library, Boston, 1990 (15 silver gelatin photographs with captions) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Stacy Friedman of Mixit and New Impressions Print Studio
Kate Hanlon Kate James and Natalie Reiser of Concord Art Association
Sam Wong Felton St. Studios Ken DeNorscia, catalog design
Broken Beauty, Cambridge Art Association’s University Place Gallery, January 7 – February 1 Reflections, The Figure and Portrait in Watercolor, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Juried Exhibition, January 9-March 19
DONNA GORDON EXHIBITIONS
National Open Juried Exhibition, The Providence Art Club, Juried by Dr. Jamie Gabbarelli of The Art Institute of Chicago, May 20 - June 17 Love/Rage Goddess, UMVA Gallery, Virtual Exhibition, Co-curated by Ann Tracy and Christine Sullivan, May 7Pop-Up,29 the art house, Organized by Kate Kostopoulos, Owner and Director of Chase Young Gallery, May 1 - 30 Double Vision, Bromfield Gallery (Online), Juried exhibi tion, March 5 -28 MJ2, Concord Art Association, Juried exhibition, Febru ary 25 - March 25
Changing Tides, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Juried exhibition, December 10, 2020 - March 14, 2021 2020 Mary Schein Fall Salon, Cambridge Art Association’s Kathryn Schultz Gallery, September 9-30
Transparency, Cambridge Art Association, Juried Exhibition, May 4-15
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2022 Danforth Art Museum, National Juried Exhibition, June 25 – September 18 National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Show 2, July 5 – July 30 Connectivity, Attleboro Art Museum, Juried Exhibition, Juried by Craig Bloodgood, June 15 – July 18 The Figure, Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Juried Exhibition, May 31 – June 28 Double Vision, Concord Art Association, Solo exhibition, June 16 -July 17 Material Matters, ArtsWorcester, March 17-April 24 Green Renewal, Galatea Fine Art, Curated by Agusta Agustsson, March 4-27 Ardor, Bromfield Gallery, Juried Exhibition, February 2202127 “Winter Works” Bromfield Gallery, Juried Exhibition, December 1 - 19 Nourish, Belmont Gallery of Art, October 31December 3 imPRESSIVE, Monotype Guild of New England Mem bers’ Exhibit at The Rhode Island Watercolor Society Gallery, Juried by Adrian Tió, October 2 - November 5 New England Collective XI, Galatea Fine Art, Juried by Grace Ryder O’Malley, Chief Operating Officer at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), August 6Streetwise,29Bromfield Gallery, Juried Exhibitions, June 30 - August 1 85th Annual Regional Show, Fitchburg Art Museum, Juried by Marjorie Rawle, Terrana Assistant Curator, June 26 - September 5 Love It. Protect It. MV., Featherstone Center for the Arts, Curated with Vineyard Conservation Society, June 7 - 27
Touchy Feely, Gallery 263, Juried Exhibition, March 1 - May Members Juried 2, Concord Art Association, Juried Exhibition, February 20-March 20 Members Juried 1, Painting and Sculpture, Concord Art Association, Juried Exhibition, January 16-February 9
37 LEXINGTON ROAD CONCORD, MA 01742 (978) 369-2578 DOUBLE VISION , LITHOGRAPH, 22 X 30 INCHES, 2022 VisionDoubleVisionDoubleDONNAGORDONwww.donnasgordon.comdonnagordon8994Instagram
