An exhibition of art and poetry

Artists:
Nancy Lunsford
Elisabeth Munro Smith
Jane Swavely

respond to JoAnne McFarland’s poem
My Broken French

Press release

Nancy Lunsford, co–founder of 440 Gallery, works in a variety of media including painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, photography, video and multimedia. Her work, personal and eclectic, based primarily on memoir, is generally structured on the aesthetic of traditional folk genres: Appalachian quilts, folk patterns, religious iconography, and her own major life passages.

Elisabeth Munro Smith uses wood, fiber, wire, paper, photographs and found objects to explore the natural landscape and its elements: the house, rivers, mountains, shorelines, roads and fields, and the maps that connect these elements to each other and the world beyond. Imbued with her love for the immediacy and intricacy of craft, her small standing pieces feel like weird little figures in conversation. Elisabeth Munro Smith has had five solo exhibitions at A.I.R. Gallery, and has exhibited at The Sculpture Center, Queens College, Ward’s Island, Chesterwood, and many other galleries throughout the United States.

Jane Swavely’s paintings simultaneously point to the history of the medium of painting while maintaining a strong conversation in the now. Her paintings and drawings inspire a shift in perception at once familiar and unfamiliar. Her work is in public and private collections including Chase Manhattan Bank, and the Allentown Art Museum. She is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship. Previously represented by CDS Gallery, she is currently a member of A.I.R. Gallery where she will be exhibiting in November 2018. She lives and works in New York City.

JoAnne McFarland is a poet, painter, and curator. Her previous books include: Loose Horse in the Valley, 13 Ways of Looking at a Black Girl, and Acid Rain. Her artwork is part of the public collections of the Library of Congress, the Columbus Museum of Art, and Dynegy Inc. among others. She is the former Exhibitions Director of A.I.R. Gallery and the founder of Artpoetica, a project space in Gowanus Brooklyn that explores the intersection of words, visual art, performance, and installation.