On View Beginning Sept. 1.: “Women at Work: Paper Art”
August 26, 2021: The St. Michael’s Arts & Faith Ministry is pleased to announce its first on-the-walls exhibit since the 2020–2021 pandemic began: “Women at Work: Paper Art: A Solo Exhibition by Ronni Jolles.”
Formally opening September 1, the exhibit features an exceptional array of artworks “painted” with cut and ripped papers sourced throughout the world. Each depicts a woman or women engaged in an under-appreciated daily labor, inside and outside the home. Depicting doers and caretakers, nurturers and providers, the images include a woman teaching a morning class in Guatemala, another rocking her baby, one engaged in ironing clothes, a group selling fruits and vegetables at a market stall in Israel, others washing laundry in a lake in Peru, and still more tending fields or collecting water for their village. While immediately recognizable, the scenes, composed from skillfully layered, uniquely textured, multi-colored papers, pay homage to women whom Ronni Jolles herself has observed during her extensive travels to such countries as Thailand, Japan, Nepal, Mexico, Egypt, and Tibet.
A local arts educator for nearly two decades and now a full-time artist, Jolles has created an innovative art form whose sculptural, painterly, and tactile qualities surprise and delight gallery-goers wherever the artworks are shown. The original, one-of-a-kind pieces Jolles has crafted especially for this exhibit have never before been shown together, and all are offered for purchase.
In addition to celebrating women’s work in art, Jolles will be offering one of her informative talks on Sunday, September 26, 4:00–5:00 PM, in the Parish Hall. Those interested in attending are asked to list their name and that of any guest on the sign-up sheet at the back of the Exhibition Notebook in the gallery space. Affordable prints of Jolles’s originals will be available.
Detailed information about the exhibit, the artist, and the artist’s talk here and in the Exhibition Notebook.
The exhibit runs through the end of September.
Maureen Doallas, Arts & Faith Ministry Leader