March 2010

Press Release
Contact: Christopher Kamyszew, Senior Curator
Tel. 773-486-9612
Fax 773-486-9613
e-mail: societyforarts@societyforarts.com

EMILIE BRZEZINSKI FAMILY TREES
A Sculptural Installation
March 20 - April 14, 2010

...........

FAMILY TREES is a metaphorical portrait of the Brzezinski family, and a personal statement of identity. I am ever amazed - says the artist - how my culture of origin has influenced my work. Too long I was blind to those origins, possibly because I never lived in the home country of my parents. The tour to the art world of my roots was significant to my artistic self definition: that I have one foot in America, and another foot, a very important one, in Central Europe - an "American artist of Central European descent." The installation -- several free-standing wood sculptures with black and white photographic images applied onto their surfaces -- is not only an affirmation of the artist's cultural identity, it speaks also of the crucial element of self-definition within one's family. In its entirety, "Family Trees" contains subtle juxtapositions of spaces that do not play against each other, rather, create an interplay of different spaces. It is also an artistic testimonial to the fact that her roots are now deeply planted in America.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Emilie Brzezinski began her career in the 1970s with a series of solo shows in Washington, DC, and in New York. Working in a variety of media, including resin, wood fiber, and wood, her expressive themes always related to nature. Eventually she focused entirely on monumental wood sculpture, using chain saws, chisels and axes to carve forms that took inspiration from the wood she found at mills, gardens, and development sites. Often retaining the vertical structure of the original, she shows her own marks on the wood, emphasizing the importance of the process as much as the product.

In 1994 Emilie Brzezinski had her first exhibition at the Society for Arts' 1112 Gallery. Art critics pointed out her respect to wood as a material for itself, indicating that her commitment to material may be harbinger of the future. She communicates an urgent energy and severity of mood - wrote Josephine Gear - that makes them thoroughly contemporary and reawakens our sense of the agency of beauty. During the last decade she has had a number of museum installations in the United states and she completed a tour of her installations Forest through the capitals of Eastern Europe, from where her family originates. Family Trees represents a new approach of the artist, in which she explores possibilities of combining wood with black and white images applied onto its surface.

Mika Brzezinski, Emilie's daughter and the co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, has just completed her memoir, "All Things at Once" (Weinstein Books, New York), coinciding with the completion of her mother's Family Trees. An expression of her life and love for her family, Family Trees closely mirrors the narrative of Mika's book, and both book and installation are testimonials to their identities as artists, wives and mothers. On March 20th, Mika Brzezinski will sign her book at the Society for Arts.

The Society for Arts is a 501 (c) (3) non for profit cultural organization, established in December of 1981. At present, its major objective is a stimulation of exchange of ideas between artists of various media who represent different cultures. In its activities, the Society particularly enhances a promulgation of Eastern and Central European art in the United States.

1112 Gallery of the Society for Arts is open Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 6:00 pm. Otherwise by appointment.

Family Trees project is made with a grant from Bader Foundation.
The Society for Arts' spring exhibition series is made possible with a support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, Mercedes Benz, Stanley Stawski Distributing Company and AT&T.