In her show at The Cornwall CT Library, artist Roxana Alger Geffen presents a collection of inspired pieces made from everyday found objects and materials. The work consists of framed works on paper (collages) and sculptures (called assemblages when made with found objects). Each of the pieces, in her words, “contains a new world, a landscape pulled into being through my collaboration with materials.”

The inspiration and title for Geffen’s show come from “Poem” by poet Elizabeth Bishop. In the poem, Bishop is slowly transfixed by a dollar bill-size landscape painting unearthed from a steamer trunk. At first she dismisses the bland little painting, created many years before by a great-uncle she never knew, but as she looks at the details—the houses, tiny steeple and tinier geese—Bishop suddenly realizes that she knows the scene well. The painting brings her memories of the place to life, and her memories make the painting vivid and rich.

Geffen says: “The works in my show also try to make everyday pieces of the past newly vivid and alive. Like Bishop’s painting, my pieces are full of the past: bills paid, things bought and used, fabric torn, litter dropped. I collect these things from my daily life: scraps of cloth, receipts, envelopes, snippets of text, metal things I find on the ground. I assemble them into groupings, pulling them into an uneasy community of misfits. To me, these collages and assemblages each contain a new world, a landscape pulled into being through my collaboration with materials.”

Geffen has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (VA), The Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House (Alexandria, VA), and Flashpoint Gallery (DC).

June 30-August 18; Artist’s Reception June 30, 6–8 PM; Registration requested for reception: https://cornwalllibrary.org/events/

Free admission. See Cornwall Library website for hours.

Cornwall Library
30 Pine Street
Cornwall, CT 06753

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