BRATTLEBORO-CX Silver Gallery, 814 Western Ave., opens a new exhibition with works from Julia Zanes that will be on display through May 27. An opening reception will be held Saturday, April 6, from 1 to 3 p.m.
"The work here is a selection from several bodies of work made since 2020," Zanes writes in her artist statement. "The small ones I called 'Household Objects.' They were an offshoot of a large body of work I made around 2016 called 'The Good Eye.' I was interested in apotropaic art, and I was trying to make a shift from the image to the object."
She thinks of paintings as magical objects with a specific, household purpose, she says, "that of keeping evil at bay. It struck me as a funny, medieval way of looking at things. I have always liked Grimm's Fairy Tales, and the fact that the stories were called 'Household Tales' when first published was appealing to me."
About the use of gold (a common object featured in fairy tales) in her paintings, Zane says, "I don't want to think of [the paintings] as being precious, but rather as ordinary objects we keep around the house, for a purpose beyond decoration. Of course I don't believe in the magical powers of paintings, but on some level, know it to be true."
The larger paintings in the exhibit, the more narrative ones, Zanes started when the Covid pandemic began four years ago.
"I gave myself an assignment to include imagery from The Book of Revelation, and also from American schoolgirl embroideries (samplers)." Feeling the End Times spirit was in the ether for a few months, she says, "I was way over my head in thinking that I was about to start painting the 'Whore of Babylon' or anything like that, but I did include a few little fiery references."
The symmetry and the imagery in the embroideries are appealing to Zanes. "I love that they were made by young girls," she says.
For more information on the exhibit, visit cxsilvergallery.com/julia-zanes. The gallery is open Thursdays to Mondays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call 802-257-7898, ext. 1, for the latest news.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.