S Artspace Gallery, in NY’c Lower-East Side, is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in the U.S. of the Aruban artist: Elisa Lejuez. This solo show, titled “Connections” featuring Lejuez’s most recent collection, “Connections”, promises to make evident her affinity to pop culture. The opening reception will take place on Thursday, April 25th, 2013 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; at S Artspace Gallery, 345 Broome Street, NY. The works will be on view until May 25th, 2013.
“If there were no difference, there would be no need to make connections”, says Lejuez. Elisa Lejuez describes the source of inspiration for this collection to be venturing into her dream world in order to make connections. This dreamscape is the space where she initiates her journey, through the threshold that separates the outside –empirical, external, sensuous experience—and the inside—the profound, infinite, complexities of the subconscious mind. “In my dreams I find solutions, explanations and connections between things. I try to catch these virtual images and convert them into pieces of art”.
In her work, we encounter a landscape that is populated by shapes, patterns and, colors that incorporate her global heritage; the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao, the Netherlands, China, Africa and India. It is a world of colonial and post-colonial juxtapositions, but furthermore, a globalized “alter-modern” world where this continuous clash of patterns and symbols are struggling to forge connections.
Elisa Lejuez got her BA in art at the University of Fine Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands and her MA in textile design at the same University. She started her career as a textile designer for major Dutch textile companies and traveled through Asia doing research—an experience that has left a visible impression in her art.
Her work contains multi-disciplinary/multi-faceted techniques including painting, textile design, fashion design, interior and furniture. All of these possessed by her rich use of color and symbols such as, circles, flowers, batik, calendars, labyrinth, and multiple forms of the grid. The same grid that seems to map out the globe and circle that seem to enclose nature, or labyrinths and motherboards that are juxtaposed in her work all alluding to the search for harmony and connection. It is this passage between the real and imaginary that best describes these powerful new works where you can never be quite sure on which side of the threshold you find yourself.
S Artspace Gallery is a young contemporary art gallery located in the heart of the Lower East Side, in NYC. The gallery is a springboard for young and mid-career International artists, primarily from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Directors, Catherine Testorf and Elizabeth Rosso, strive to bring original and innovative art expressions to an already vibrant scene. S Artspace Gallery is located at 345 Broome Street, NYC (between Elizabeth and Bowery).
