Blue Mountain Gallery Presents Charismatic Microfauna, 5/22-6/16

Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh, in collaboration with Dr. Gareth Lawson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will be presenting THE PTEROPOD PROJECT: charismatic microfauna, May 22 - June 16, 2012. The exhibition consists of 11 sculptures of pteropods (also known as "Sea Butterflies"), tiny marine animals at the bottom of the marine food web that are threatened by ocean acidification. Highly abstracted and enlarged between 400 and 2,000 times, Kavanagh's pteropods are a celebration of the beauty of these microorganisms, as well as a warning about a little understood consequence of global warming.

In an essay for a booklet about the show, art historian Stephanie Grilli observes that "Kavanagh's pteropods are ancient and elemental forms whose ocean existence is a reminder of our own watery origins and our primal consciousness." With appealing sculptural shapes "evocative of Arp, Miro and Kandinsky," adds Grilli, "Kavanagh's figures could be protean spirits of the deep, winged messengers from the ocean world." The stress pteropods are under is contrasted with the exuberance of their forms in a sculptural essay designed to raise consciousness about a problem that exists mainly "under the radar."

Woods Hole will be supplying wall text, graphics on the marine food web, photographic enlargements of actual pteropods, and a video showing the creatures in "flight." For information contact Heather Gaudio at (203) 801-9590.

Kavanagh has had five previous solo exhibitions in New York, and has participated in a number of group shows nationally and abroad. In 2005, she represented the United States Virgin Islands Council on the Arts at the 51st Venice Biennale, and her work has been shown at SOFA Chicago, the Miami Design District during Art Basel Miami Beach and two OPEN shows in Venice-Lido which exhibit artists from around the world. She has also been extensively exhibited in galleries and museums in the north east.

Kavanagh received an AA from Pine Manor College, a BA in Art History from Barnard College and an MA from Columbia University. Listed in Who’s Who in American Art, Kavanagh is a member of the Connecticut Women Artists, a member of the National Association of Women Artists and a colleague of the National Sculpture Society.

Kavanagh works out of studios in Norwalk, CT and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The full range of her work can be seen by visiting www.corneliakavanagh.com. 

Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh:  CHARISMATIC MICROFAUNA

May 22 -June 16, 2012

Artist Reception: Thursday May 24, 6 - 8 pm