Through the Eyes of a Child

Janiece Muntadar Senn's featured artist show, Through the Eyes of a Child, opened at Avante Art Gallery in Maplewood this evening. It is always a pleasure to see Senn's work, and a surprise each and every time as well since she works in so many different media and techniques.

Through the Eyes of a Child featured several new collage pieces and wall-hung works in addition to a few sculptural pieces. The collages were intriguing and I especially liked the format of the large series because they had the same basic framework, found trays hung vertically that are much taller than they are wide. In addition to providing a lot of compositional interest and cohesion, this format related to the theme of the show by bespeaking a sense of time. And Senn worked within the challenging vertical format wonderfully, exploring all sorts of objects, colors and found images.

I was especially drawn to a large scale painting entitled Winter. This piece featured many layers of white on white and minimal color. The subtle beauty was entrancing and reflected upon the subject well. It was also a joy talking to Senn about the painting: how she enjoyed working on it and would like to see more explorations in white. This piece is extrememly difficult to photograph and digital images don't do it justice, though, so you should see it in person if at all possible. (That really holds true for any art that wasn't conceptually meant to be viewed online; everything is so much better seen in person in the context in which it was conceived. But in the case of something like this, it is absolutely necessary to see it in person.) I cannot wait to see the rest of the series, Spring, Summer and Fall, later on.