BLUE
February 3rd - March 24th
at SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
The exhibition BLUE explores the use of the color by eleven artists in a variety of media ranging from ceramics, painting, printmaking, and fiber.
Blue, taken for granted today, did not exist in the ancient world. The color blue came into being about 4500 years ago when the Egyptians began making pigments from the deep blue semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli. Before that time, there was no word for blue and no mention of the color in any written text. Slowly the expensive and rare Egyptian pigments began to travel around the world and blue, due to its rarity and expense, became the color of royalty, and in 431 AD, it became the official color of the Virgin Mary’s robe.
Ancient Egyptians believed that blue was the color of the heavens and, hence the universe. It was also associated with water and the Nile. Thus, blue was the color of life, fertility and rebirth. Today blue is commonly available and it’s almost impossible to imagine its absence. It is still a color associated with the heavens, innocence, trust, manual labor workers and, since 2000, the Democratic Party.
BLUE featured artists:
Jane Booth
Jun Kaneko
Karen Kunc
Jason Pollen
Barbara Rogers
Cary Esser
Michiko Itatani
Doug Freed
Christopher St. Leger
Carl Corey
Mary Ann Strandell
KANEKO
Flatware Jiggerman – Homer Laughlin China – Newell, WV
Photography
Oscillation Shift
