Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Mayor, Timothy Evans, Chief Judge of Cook County , Agnes Ptasznik, Illinois Assistant Attorney General-Consumer Protection/Consumer Fraud and number of other public officials, community leaders, fellow artists attended the opening ceremony as well.
Judge Timothy Evans and Agnes Ptasznik, Illinois Assistant Attorney.
Mika Brzezinski, the sculptor daughter, who is the Co-Host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, attended an opening of the Exhibit and helped her mom during signing her mom’s book. Joe Scarborough, the other Co-Host of MSNBC’s attended the event as well.
“I am always gratified to show my work in Chicago because of my shared central European ties with the city,” Brzezinski said.
“The Society for Arts was instrumental in putting together the European tour of Brzezinski’s Family Trees in Dresden, Gdansk, and Prague in 2012/13.
Today, we are happy to welcome the important artist and her award-winning sculptures back to Gallery 1112,” said Christopher Kamyszew, Executive Director of The Society for Arts and the curator of the exhibit.
The exhibit, titled “Old Medium, New Tools”, features four installations by Brzezinski who is renowned among leading sculptors in the wood medium.
Brzezinski’s sculptures, often characterized by their monumental size, lack the geometric, mechanical, and linear components that some artists employ today.
Brzezinski’s works are raw and natural in form and illustrate the process that is so important to her through her use of chainsaw, ax, and chisel. The works shown in Gallery 1112 is no different.
“Nature has a grand design, but its manifestations unfold in imperfection and specificity; respect to this persistent individuality in natural form is the underpinning of my work.” Brzezinski said.
One highlight of the exhibit exemplifies Brzezinski’s favorite natural feature of trees, the contrapposto form. In 2003,White Oak Verticals was the recipient of first prize for sculpture at the Florence, Italy Biennale. Two other works will make their exhibition debut at Gallery 1112: Cherry Breezes, and Water Garden. The last work that is presented is Brzezinski’s Cherry Bench II, which most recently was shown at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.
Old Medium, New Tools: A Contemporary Wood Sculpture Exhibit by Emilie Brzezinski will run from Sept. 24 – Nov. 1, every day of the week from 12:00-6:00 pm except Mondays.
Mika Brzezinski, Co-Host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe writes about her Mom “My mom, an 83-year-old, chainsaw-wielding wood sculptor, has been doing this for as long as I can remember”.
Emilie Brzezinski is an incredible artist, an example of Super Ager with incredible accomplishments who constantly searches for new ideas, projects.
We will publish more pictures from the opening ceremony in the near future.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by Star-tech Glass, Inc. and Jordan’s Food of Distinction.
@ Andrew (Andrzej) Mikolajczyk
For more information about the exhibit, please contact the Society for Arts at 773-486-9612or [email protected].
For inquiries about Brzezinski, please contact Brzezinski’s publicist, Joseph Fons, at 703-957-8624 [email protected].