GAZEBO GALLERY
KENT, OHIO 44240

Saturday, June 5th, 2021 // 1 pm-6 pm, weather permitting
RSVP required

Gazebo Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by New York City-based artist Essye Klempner. Ceramicist, sculptor, printmaker, writer, and zine maker, her varied approach has produced a rich body of work that centers on themes of craft, environmentalism, community, and the body.

In this series of work, referencing silent films such as 1933’s Ecstasy starring Hedy Lamarr, Klempner relies on the drama of the body to convey emotion, intimacy, and erotic tension. Using the minimal visual information provided from grainy film stills, she sculpts sinuous ceramic figures in various states or repose or performing their ablutions, reminiscent of Camille Claudel or Auguste Rodin’s rough clay sketches. Other figures are far more personal (but no less cinematic), drawn from a photograph of a friend playing chess, or through the observation of a bathing lover.

Interested in how art, functionality, and the environment intersect, Klempner’s sculptures are active birdbaths placed throughout the garden, inviting our local migratory community into these frozen private moments. Specifically scheduled to coincide with the peak of the spring migration through northeast Ohio, it is hoped that during this exhibition the birds will make use of these unusual oases, completing the scenes.

Presented alongside the sculptures will be a series of small-scale chemigrams, a form of cameraless photography. Relying on chemicals and various resists on photosensitive paper, it is an intuitive process that allows Klempner to draw out her images, pulled from the same romantic and voyeuristic scenes as their ceramic counterparts. Together, these two bodies of work are a whimsical exploration of material, narrative, and process resulting in delightful and surprising garden vignettes.

Essye Klempner earned an MFA from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, NJ, and a BFA from School of Visual Arts, NYC. She has been an artist-in-residence at Woodstock, NY’s Byrdcliffe Guild; Hunter College in New York City; St. Mary’s College of Maryland; and upcoming at East 40 Garden and Ceramic residency at Northampton Community College. She has exhibited at Hunter College, Rutgers University, the RISING URBANIST Conference, and the Queens Museum’s Queens International: 2018 Biennial, Volumes. She is also a co-founder of SEMINAR reading group and Ink Cap Press, as well as NYC prints for Grassroots Arts Fund, providing printing material to local activists at EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.

Gazebo Gallery is a project space at the home of Annie Wischmeyer and Shawn Powell. Stationed in their outdoor Gazebo in Kent, Ohio their mission is to showcase nationally and regionally recognized artists’ work in a non-commercial setting. Exhibitions are short-run with one-day openings via appointment. Email gazebogallerykent@gmail.com to RSVP, which is required. All appointments are subject to rain cancellations and will be rescheduled. Please park in our driveway and not on the narrow street.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, visitors must follow all current Ohio State CDC guidelines.

Gazebo Gallery is featured in the current issue of New Art Examiner, Volume 35, No. 5, May/June 2021. The article Cleveland, Ohio, And The American Industrial Artland, by Scottish-American art critic Darren Jones, outlines Northeast Ohio’s thriving art scene.