SUSAN YANERO
at the Katzen Arts Center Museum, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC
January 26 – March 17, 2013
Gallery Talk: March 2 at 4 p.m.
Susan Yanero paints a multi-layered world caught in a moment – stopped in time. Her characters take one deep breath and wait. As described in the quote by Nabakov hanging on the gallery wall, Yanero is “taming time.” In the painting Helicopter the children are frozen in their happy play. Perhaps the hovering red helicopter may foretell disaster but a fence blocks our view of anything beyond.
In Mafia with Innocents (above) a trapeze artist with corkscrew curls hangs above three doll-children solidified to the bottom of the canvas with an intense red. One has a halo, the other has no arms, a third falls off the bottom edge of the canvas. On each side is a legless man on a spinning wheeled platform. Each man has a tornado above his head and is pointing a gun while arrows threaten the children. This painting is eerie and foreboding but at the same time satirical in its craziness.
at the Katzen Arts Center Museum, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC
January 26 – March 17, 2013
Gallery Talk: March 2 at 4 p.m.
Susan Yanero paints a multi-layered world caught in a moment – stopped in time. Her characters take one deep breath and wait. As described in the quote by Nabakov hanging on the gallery wall, Yanero is “taming time.” In the painting Helicopter the children are frozen in their happy play. Perhaps the hovering red helicopter may foretell disaster but a fence blocks our view of anything beyond.
In Mafia with Innocents (above) a trapeze artist with corkscrew curls hangs above three doll-children solidified to the bottom of the canvas with an intense red. One has a halo, the other has no arms, a third falls off the bottom edge of the canvas. On each side is a legless man on a spinning wheeled platform. Each man has a tornado above his head and is pointing a gun while arrows threaten the children. This painting is eerie and foreboding but at the same time satirical in its craziness.
Love and redemption is implied in the title, Baptism (left). An undertone of blue pervades the whole painting as seen in the starkness of the blue-violet woman overhanging the tub, water from a bent pipe pouring over her cold body.
Yanero’s use of color gives power and force to this painting and she builds the paint surface until it is solid. The woman’s body is weighty, but limp, falling over the edge of the tub. A cat drops a red mouse on the woman’s back – as if trying to bring back life.
Yanero’s use of color gives power and force to this painting and she builds the paint surface until it is solid. The woman’s body is weighty, but limp, falling over the edge of the tub. A cat drops a red mouse on the woman’s back – as if trying to bring back life.
Yanero’s largest painting in this show (above) is dark in color and expression. With Love, Danny depicts fragments of her parents’ faces – eyes and nose on a piece of hanging drapery, red lips floating in a rectangle. A child or doll sits on the extreme end of a wagon, perhaps a circus wagon covered in drapery, the palm of a hand projects out and a solitary figure looms in the far left background. The general mood is dark but Yanero provides us with an escape from the stillness. Light from an opening on the left and coming through the cross-shaped muntins of a window offers redemption and release.
Many layers of pigment and meaning are in these paintings. It is impossible not to be taken in by the mysterious, complex world of Susan Yanero. Movement and energy are here although a haunting stillness pervades each painting.
Many layers of pigment and meaning are in these paintings. It is impossible not to be taken in by the mysterious, complex world of Susan Yanero. Movement and energy are here although a haunting stillness pervades each painting.
Also of interest: SUSAN YANERO at the Washington Studio School Gallery.
Featuring several 1980's large paintings and drawings/studies
at the Washington Studio School through March 27, 2129 S Street NW 202-234-3030
11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, weekends by appointment.
at the Washington Studio School through March 27, 2129 S Street NW 202-234-3030
11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, weekends by appointment.
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