The exhibition “SITE” brings together five painters whose work is made in response to specific locations or kinds of spaces. Responding to a wide range of sites impacted by history, travel, technology, wars and migrations, these paintings operate through dichotomies between beauty and trauma, memory and anticipation, natural and synthetic qualities, stillness and speed.
For the exhibition, Professor Slavick will exhibit “R&R(…&R),” a series that culls images of regeneration from the art and architecture of areas in current or recent conflict. Referring to scenes of daily life, construction and cultivation, she paints passages of resurgence over photographic scenes of devastation across Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East. Rather than offer any actual balm, the work induces an empathic unsettlement and poses questions about our complicity in, as well as our seemingly miraculous recovery from, incomprehensible and often self-inflicted destruction.
“SITE” is on view at Youngstown State University March 26 – April 20.