Nazareth College Arts Center Gallery to showcase four sculptors in new exhibit curated by Elizabeth Lyons

"Insight: The Inner Nature of Things" exhibit featuring Francesca Lalanne, Mahine Rattonsey, Kate Roberts, and Jennifer Schinzing opens January 24!

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“Insight: The Inner Nature of Things,” curated by artist Elizabeth Lyons; Nazareth College Arts Center Gallery January 24-March 7, 2014

ROCHESTER, NY (01/02/2014)(readMedia)-- The Nazareth College Department of Art's Arts Center Gallery will host "Insight: The Inner Nature of Things," curated by artist Elizabeth Lyons and featuring the work of sculptors Francesca Lalanne, Mahine Rattonsey, Kate Roberts, and Jennifer Schinzing. The exhibit opens Friday, January 24, 2014, through March 7, with an artists' reception on January 24 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

RELATED STORY: The Nazareth College Department of Art's Colacino Gallery will host "This Heirloom," a multi-media exhibition of film-inspired collages by Mara Ahmed beginning Wednesday, January 15, 2014, through February 7, with an artist's reception on January 24 from 5.30-7.30 p.m., and an artist's talk on January 24 at 6.30 p.m.

About "Insight: The Inner Nature of Things"

Curated by artist Elizabeth Lyons, "Insight: The Inner Nature of Things" will feature the work of four women sculptors with distinct styles: Francesca Lalanne, Mahine Rattonsey, Kate Roberts, and Jennifer Schinzing.

"I have selected these four artists for this exhibition based on the insightful nature of their work," Lyons explains. "They are each passionately committed to real-life concerns that are the basis for their own understanding and, in turn, their ability to communicate the inner nature of things through sculpture. I am struck by the elegant use of material that includes steel, clay, found objects, taxidermy, paint, video, and glass; used to weave, construct, assemble, and sculpt meaning."

FRANCESCA LALANNE was born in Miami, Florida to Haitian parents. She grew up in Port-au-Prince Haiti and, at the age of nine, moved back to the U.S., leaving behind a politically unstable environment. She attended Miami's Design Architecture High School and went on to receive a degree in Architecture and Visual Arts.

Lalanne works in painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and video. Her work is greatly informed by her experience as first-generation American woman, and explores the ambiguous nature of social issues such as religion, politics, and identity. Lalanne's artwork typically combines the human form and architectural elements, invoking ideas such as scale, strength, void, and control. She has participated in various group exhibitions nationally and in Latin countries such as Sao Paulo, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

MAHINE RATTONSEY studied Interior design and decoration at the Raheja College of Architecture in Mumbai, India, where she grew up. She received her B.F.A. in glass and sculpture from Columbus College of Art and Design, and her M.F.A. in glass from the School for American Craft at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Rattonsey's flame-worked and mixed media sculpture has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the country, and her numerous honors include multiple scholarships to attend Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. Her work is included in the collection at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, N.Y. and the Wallace Library Collection at RIT.

Rattonsey's artist statement: "The mirror reflects our likeness and elements of our personality. It is supposed to give us a true assessment of who we are. In examining the various aspects of individual personalities through the hand mirror, I am literally and symbolically analyzing the idea of self-image. I question whether our image of ourselves echoes the image that others have of us."

KATE ROBERTS received her B.F.A. with a concentration in ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2010. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate at Alfred University. Roberts is the recipient of numerous honors and fellowships including the Cite Internationale des Arts Fellowship Award. She studied art conservation and early Renaissance art at the Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy. Her ceramic sculpture has been exhibited throughout the country.

Roberts's artist statement: "My work is based on a curiosity of the nature of time. I use various materials to pipe, draw, construct, and weave issues of concern related to my development as a person and specifically a woman. I draw my inspiration from objects or ideas of ruin, whether in the form of a historical object, the architecture around me, or a personal relationship. I seek to understand the impermanent physicality of an object or idea and our relationship to it. I choose to focus on the decay and fragility of that object or idea, and how its past existence and meaning continues to be caged in its present state. By glamorizing the ruin much like artists of centuries past, I want to create work that not only finds beauty but also unrest in this temporal state."

JENNIFER SCHINZING received a B.F.A. from Alfred University in 2004 with a concentration in sculpture and glass. She currently works full-time at More Fire Glass Studio, in Rochester, New York, as the studio coordinator and first assistant. Her glass and mixed media sculptural work has a significant avian influence. Her love of birds led her to hours of volunteer work at Wild Wings, a facility that houses permanently injured birds of prey. She is now on the board of directors for that facility.

Schinzing's artist statement: "The greatest threat to birds, and all wildlife, continues to be loss and/or degradation of habitat due to human development and disturbance." - US Fish & Wildlife. The passion that I have for animals and the natural world has inspired me to learn taxidermy. The animal elements found in my work are road kill casualties or have died from natural and unpreventable deaths. By preserving them in the very small window of time between death and decay it forces people to see them in a more intimate and surreal setting. I place them in improbable situations, hopefully reminding the viewer of our fragile world."

ELIZABETH LYONS is a sculptor and designer who works in glass and a range of other materials. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States. Included among the numerous awards she has received is the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation award in 2005. In addition, Lyons is the founder and director of More Fire Glass Studio in Rochester, NY. Since 1998, More Fire Glass Studio has provided a glassmaking facility for artists to produce their work as well as glass education programs for the community. Lyons currently resides in Rochester, where she was born, having returned after living for 10 years in New York City.

"Insight: the inner nature of things" opens in the Nazareth College Department of Art's Arts Center Gallery January 24 and will be on display through March 7, with an artists' reception on January 24 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

About the Nazareth College Department of Art

The Nazareth College Department of Art offers undergraduate programs in studio art, art education, visual communication design, and art history. The College offers graduate programs in art education and art therapy.

In the past decade, Nazareth has built two state-of-the-art galleries to serve the College and the community. Exhibitions in the Arts Center Gallery and Colacino Gallery are free of charge and open to the public. For additional information, please visit www.naz.edu/art.

About the Arts Center Gallery

The vision of the Arts Center Gallery is to be regionally and nationally recognized as an artistic institution that contributes to the cultural and educational life of students, faculty, and the larger community by providing a venue for high-quality, diverse artwork that advances intellectual exploration, aesthetic evaluation, and critical inquiry. Exhibitions are curated under the direction of the fine art faculty at Nazareth College by invitation. Gallery hours are: Sunday and Tuesday-Thursday, noon-5pm; Friday-Saturday, noon-8pm. For additional information, please visit www.naz.edu/art/arts-center-gallery or call the automated information line: 585-389-5073.

About Nazareth College

Nazareth is a coeducational, independent college on a suburban campus just outside Rochester, N.Y. The College challenges students to rise to their potential with a liberal arts and sciences foundation, professional programs, experiential learning, and an innovative curriculum that addresses the current and emerging needs of the world - ranging from economics to physical therapy to environmental science. With more than 40 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs, a vibrant arts center and a variety of athletics, clubs and organizations, Nazareth prepares students to be successful professionals and engaged citizens. For more information, visit www.naz.edu.

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