Words & Images

On View December 19 – January 31, 2006

Judy Gelles, Them, 2005, print on duraclear and clear plexi glass, 6 ½ x 11 inches each, courtesy of Cohen Amador Gallery

Words & Images” is a show featuring work by 15 artists. Words, slogans, messages, and text have been  used by contemporary artists and incorporated into their work for the past several decades.  Once considered radical, it is now quite prevalent.  Some artists use words to enhance an image, others use words as a means of explication, while others make words the image itself.  Included in the show are works by both established and emerging artists: Conrad Atkinson, Paul Chan, Lesley Dill, Jim Dine, Judy Gelles, Jenny Holzer, Robert Indiana, Stephanie Brody Lederman, Glenn Ligon, Ed Ruscha, Jonathan Santlofer, Dread Scott, Amy Sillman & Jef Scharf, and Peter Sis.

Paul Chan, Maps for the Future I, 2001, screenprint, 30 x 40 inches, courtesy of Lower East Side Printshop

The exhibit includes paintings, prints, and collage. The use of text in all of the works draws from a variety of cultural forms: sources include signs, comics and cartoons, diary entries, and political banners.  Text is simultaneously and alternately informational and visual, rhetorical and symbolic.  The use of text sometimes challenges the viewer to consider the place of the image, in turn, as a source of information.

As a member of the American Association of Museums, The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is  committed to publicly exhibiting its art collection throughout its 32-acre campus including the Derfner Judaica Museum and a sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. The Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection provide educational and cultural programming for residents of the Hebrew Home, their families and the general public from throughout New York City, its surrounding suburbs and visitors from elsewhere. The Home is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric organization serving more than 11,000 elderly persons in greater New York through its resources and community service programs. Museum hours: Sunday – Thursday, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Art Collection and grounds open daily, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Call 718 581-1596 for holiday hours and to schedule group tours, or for further information please visit our website at http://www.hebrewhome.org/art

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.