By James Lipsitz • Special to the Current
Every year for the past five decades, the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, together with the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, presents the Art of the State exhibition open to artists and craftspeople across the commonwealth as an annual juried event. This year, already in its 56th year, the Art of the State 2023 (which opened September 10th in conjunction with Harrisburg’s 35th Gallery Walk) offers a cohesive theme centered on what Pennsylvania’s art is.
As an established tradition of showcasing highly creative art chosen by a distinguished panel of jurors, the Art of the State venue provides an “opportunity for established and emerging artists to present their skills and creative vision, while at the same time receiving statewide recognition.” This year’s exhibition introduces 86 works from 29 counties, selected out of 1,915 submitted works from 559 artists in various categories from paintings, works on paper, photography and digital media, to sculpture and craft.
Adjacent to the State Capitol in Harrisburg, the State Museum of Pennsylvania is one of twenty three historic sites administered by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, and offers “collections interpreting the state’s heritage from the dawn of its geologic time, the Native Peoples experience, the colonial and revolutionary eras, to a pivotal Civil War battleground and the commonwealth’s vast industrial age” – containing approximately 9 million objects, and over 250 million archival files painstakingly collected, preserved, researched, and interpreted as cultural and natural history treasures of the state.
On September 10th, the prestigious Art of the State 2023 exhibition has unveiled 86 works of art created by 86 artists. The show’s largest category this year is Painting, representing 35 works. What is painting? An artistic expression in oil, acrylic, watercolor, encaustic, fresco, ink & wash, pastel, gouache and spray paint, painted on a two-dimensional surface. The opening reception was an elegant affair that included the awards ceremony at the museum’s auditorium followed by lunch in Memorial Hall.
This year, Carbon County is represented by Jim Thorpe artist, Yvonne Wright (a.k.a Yvonne Nowicka-Wright), a multimedia artist, who has had a rewarding career in fine arts encompassing international awards and works in public and private collections (e.g. several of her drawings are part of the collection at the National Art Gallery Zachęta in Warsaw, Poland, while her book on architecture entered the Deutsche National Bibliothek in Frankfurt, Germany). Yvonne owns and operates a small art gallery – artist’s studio, Studio YNW located at 100 West Broadway dedicated to showcasing her works (originals, prints and art merchandise). Yvonne is concept and technique-driven, who often approaches her art from an art historical perspective, meaning she enjoys communicating with her viewers through symbols imbued in her works the way old masters often did to convey a particular story recognizable by their contemporaries.
The painting that propelled Yvonne to the finals of the Art of the State contest is “Innocence Lost” acrylic on canvas, 16”x20” created over a period of three months and completed in the early 2021. It symbolically articulates the artist’s fears about the world changed by the global pandemic. Created as a companion piece to “MMXX-Disquiet Earth”, an earlier ‘Pandemic’ work, “Innocence Lost” narrates the psychological implications of life in isolation during mandatory lock-downs – “especially detrimental to children, when the measures designed to contain the disease impacted their mental health with long months of separation from their peers and many family members.” The girl in the painting doesn’t seem to fear the rat, playfully holding it on her shoulder as if it was her pet. “And yet, the rat left a small red mark on the girl’s index finger” explains Yvonne, “alluding to the most commonly, and historically believed facts about plagues being spread by rodents.”
“The background of the painting” Yvonne continues “reflects my earlier visit to The Dolon House B&B in Jim Thorpe, known for its elegant antique furnishings and art throughout. I chose to set up my composition roughly in their dinning room area, where a beautiful wooden credenza with a tall top hatch became a dramatic window frame onto the outside world. Visible through the window are distant clouds parting on a horizon, allowing sunshine and breezes of fresh air to blow over the earth in a symbolic deliverance of much needed cleansing and rejuvenating powers. Closer to the window frame, tattered and torn sheers appear looking fresher, indicative of a new hope coming soon (the vaccines). Distant clouds contrast well with the weighty framework of the interior, almost entrapping the girl within its walls. Her only way of communicating with friends and the outside world she once knew is by iPhone, now resting on the window ledge strangely silent.”
The artist also admitted somewhat shyly that the dimensions of the painting were a bit of a challenge for her, because she doesn’t normally work on such a large scale, considering herself a miniaturist. She uses very small brushes regardless of the format, preferring brush sizes 0/10 and 0/20. “For me, a canvas this size is intimidating” confesses Yvonne, “although I realize that sizes do matter in art, and larger paintings are more impactful at art shows.”
Many of Yvonne’s original paintings and drawings are on display at Studio YNW in Jim Thorpe (located near the Old Jail Museum), along with a sampling of what she calls art-merchandise that includes: art prints, canvas prints, greeting cards, wall tapestries, etc., all featuring Yvonne’s paintings and drawings reproduced in conjunction with her online shops. Open usually Thursdays through Sundays.
If you couldn’t manage to come to the opening reception of Art of the State 2023 at the State Museum in September, the show continues until January 7th, 2024, so there is a plenty of time and worth of the effort to see it, as it showcases highly creative and accomplished Pennsylvania artists working in various mediums, presented in six categories. It’s wonderful to see Carbon County represented this year at the show, and by an artist from Jim Thorpe. We wish Yvonne Wright many artistic successes, hopefully representing our town in many future art exhibitions.
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