Works On Paper, Drawings and Intaglio
by Molly Goldstrom
October 2nd – October 31st, 2008
An exhibition of drawings and intaglio prints by the artist Mollie Goldstrom. The exhibition will be presented, in our gallery, October 2 -31, 2008, located at 91 Charles Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
This is Mollie Goldstrom’s first solo exhibition. A recent graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, her subject matter and resulting artwork resonate beyond her years. To have an artistic “voice” at this juncture in her life, to be a “storyteller” through her art, is an accomplishment that is unusual.
In her chosen mediums of intaglio and drawings, Mollie Goldstrom attempts to portray the “ambiguous space between opposing states of existence”. Referenced sources are popular folklore, personal myth, current events and environmental issues. Her work conveys a sense of whimsy while contending with allegorical, socio-political, and metaphysical challenges.
Revealed in such series as, Lumbering, or the Miscarriage of Use, Fail-Safe: Hunting and Gathering Spitzbergen, or the series, The Woods, they investigate ecological and global issues presenting universal concerns, which are subtly depicted at the most “local” or “everyman” level in her artwork. The artist reveals, through her intimate use of scale, stories of man’s relationship to nature. Our use and misuse of the environment are poignantly defined through this story-like manner in her art. This is the artist’s exception; to convey grave concerns with humble expression.
As her writings suggest on the subject of the seed library in Svalbard, “The purpose of the seed Library is to amass and catalogue all known cultivated seeds with the intent of recreating agriculture in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. Since their initial inception and subsequent construction, these collections of the world crop seeds have met frequent destruction at the hands of war, political unrest, and famine, as well as numerous natural causes. The building and holding of such a collection becomes a Sisyphean task, an allegory for human folly and futility, as it is human’s dual nature to collect and catalogue as well as disrupt and destroy, and it is the nature of seeds themselves to be dispersed and spread.”