Art Out: Sara Vanderbeek at Metro Pictures
Women & Museums III, 2019 dye sublimation print.
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York
Ah! How refreshing it is to see a one-person exhibit of a woman artist. Women throughout history have been largely excluded from museums and galleries, more generally have been denied access to the art world, and, while our art history books are filled with ‘great artists’, very few women have been considered as such. Women have been pushed out of the spotlight for centuries, and it’s time we start to change that.
On the top floor of the Metro Pictures Gallery in Chelsea, Sara VanDerBeek shows her series of photographs called Women & Museums. Six of her photographs hang on the wall, larger than life. She plays with form and layout, portrays women figures and women’s work in crafts from various cultures and periods in time, interpreting them in an impressively contemporary way. It looks as if she were giving these women the opportunity to reclaim power, and allow them to now be visible. She overlays certain images, doubles others, all of them in blue, purple and pink hues, reminding me of the blue light emitted by my phone.
Women & Museums II, 2019 dye sublimation print.
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York
The concept of blue light is related to the wavelength of light rays and the energy that they contain. In the light spectrum, blue-violet light rays have shorter wavelengths but the highest energy (right before ultra-violet light). Not as a physics expert, I’m coming to the conclusion that; having less visibility means more energy and having high visibility means less energy. I am left wondering if Sara VanDerBeek is trying to address questions of the visibility of women artists through color play.
Women & Museums IV, 2019 dye sublimation print.
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York
In a distinctively appropriate and brilliant way, Sara VanDerBeek makes me realize the potential of blue light in transmitting the power of women’s work. In a way, she challenges the principles of physics and makes blue light highly visible, as well as highly powerful. This exhibit room is stimulating and electrifying, and gives us space to think about interpretation, histories, cultures and their relation from past to present.
METRO PICTURES
519 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
September 5 - October 19, 2019.
