Features

Giorgi Gallery Exhibits Big Work by a Tiny Artist

By JULIE ROSS Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 01, 2004

The Giorgi Gallery on Claremont is currently showing an exhibit of Evelyn Glaubman’s work from 1990-2000. Evelyn Glaubman is Vista College’s—and Berkeley’s—premiere art teacher and has more devoted students than the Pope has bishops. One other thing to note about the artist when viewing this show is that she is a tiny, diminutive person who creates BIG WORK! The Giorgi’s walls are barely big enough to contain it and each piece needs a much larger space.  

In this work the “message” is the art—or some of it. What I liked about these pieces is the unifying single most clear message: We Want Our Freedom! From the debasement of our freedoms by “technology” imprisoning us to the Statue of Liberty reduced to holding up a No Parking sign, each piece dramatizes our loss of freedom. (Because these pieces were done in the prior decade, the freedoms at stake pale before what is going on today—which won’t be lost on you and perhaps makes it all the more chilling). 

For me, the best is the piece “American Gothic,” a huge work with many levels (both in references, meanings and superimposed layering including external ropes criss-crossing Mom and Pop further imprisoning them and creating a three dimensional work of depth). They are a new “American Gothic,” not the folksy couple we knew struggling (together) with their pitchforks to contain our vast land, but a man and a woman who cannot make a relationship together. They are badly injured, particularly Pop, with his injured macho.  

All the works are created from recycled materials including paper towels, Truitt & White rulers, and the whole “Billboard” series is done on the backs of billboards! 

Glaubman’s work is the most interesting show the Giorgi has yet produced. 

 

Evelyn Glaubman Exhibit shows May 20-June 6 at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. at Ashby Avenue. 848-1228.ø