
RIVAA Artist Victoria Thorson at theBlanc Gallery
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Sculptures in Repurposed Wood & Steel - Angry Oak and Soothing Basswood
Engaged with life below the surface, the sculptor calls upon process art to give free reign to human expression. Craggy, jumpy gouges cut by chain saw into oak and smooth, connected meditations in basswood are the spectrum of expression in wood sculptures by Victoria Thorson.
Domino Refinery is the artist’s intuitive reaction to a massive oak round with a square hole chewed through by carpenter ants. Her alterations made with a chain saw and chisel are coupled with a steel platform and a 200 year old pine slab that was salvaged from the construction site at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery.
The 6 foot column Trilogy was a preexisting counter top pulled out of a rehabbed brownstone. It became the basis for three adjacent expressions in basswood, a wood that lent itself to a sliced geometry of planes, smooth refinements, and inserts of color strips.
A series of Birch rounds, to be burned for firewood, are attached to found objects in metal and old wood, splattered or burnished with color.
Thorson is a New York based artist working in wood and metal. Inspired by the artists Ligia Clark, Sean Scully, and Cecil Skotnes, her basswood and steel columns and her sculptures in oak, walnut and birch are installed in architectural settings including Island House, Roosevelt Island. Also a PhD art historian, she worked at MoMA where she uncovered the fake drawings of Auguste Rodin, and later wrote the definition of Abstract Art for the Grove Encyclopedia of American Art.


Come and join us to see "Luminous" at the Octagon Gallery, a solo show by RIVAA Artist and Photographer Piaskowski.
The exhibit runs from July 1 - September 29, 2023 with a reception on Thursday July 6, 2023 from 6-9 pm.
Piaskowski invites you to see her moody Still Lifes and dwell in the quiet moments.
Octagon Gallery - 888 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, NY 10044. Hours 9 am-9pm daily. rivaagallery.org, IG: @rivaagallery, estherpiaskowski.com, IG: @estherpiaskowski