Art Museum Hosts Exhibition of Exotic Portraiture

Nyx Epistema
12×10.5 Oil-&-gold-leaf-on-wood-panel

Toronto-based artist Sara Golish claims to have known, even as a toddler drawing with pencil on paper, that her career path would be in the visual arts. Since then she has branched out to figurative drawing, painting, sculpture, and designing and painting murals. She has a special flair for portraiture – but with a modern twist. 

The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum is exhibiting a unique collection of her work in Sara Golish: Birds of Paradise, running through April 11.

The exhibition features women’s portraits in styles far different from traditional and historic ideas of women’s images, highlighting women of color through a lens of what she terms “eco-feminism.”

Her subjects are depicted in strong poses and bold colors and accompanied with exotic birds and plants that symbolize strength and fortitude of spirit. Golish’s portraits turn the classical standard of women’s portraits on its head.

Instead of depicting affluent, European women in unassertive poses with shallow expressionless faces, and adorned with the symbols of affluence and status, Golish gives her multiethnic women bold and dignified stances – as uncaged as tropical birds. By surrounding them with tropical flora and fauna, she represents women’s traditional connection to the earth while also alluding to the colonial history of oppression.

In addition to her painting and sculpture, Golish has done extensive decorative work including murals, bas relief, gilding and faux finishes in traditional and contemporary styles. She has worked on high-end residential, corporate and retail interior design projects for Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sarasota and Barbados.

In recognition that 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women in America the right to vote, the Art Museum plans a full year of exhibitions by women artists, to highlight the wide range of contributions by women to the visual arts in America. Sara Golish is the first of these exhibitions, followed by Voice Lessons, a collection of works by four contemporary women artists which also runs through April 11.

Gallery hours for both exhibits are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

Admission to the Art Museum is free at all times but donations are welcomed.

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