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Eco-artist Alison Sigethy’s solo artist exhibit Understory, January 6 – February 7, 2011 will be featured in The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center on Alexandria’s Potomac River waterfront.
Alison Sigethy draws inspiration from the natural world surrounding her – from her works made from natural fibers to sculptures made from recycled glass. Her multimedia solo exhibit, Understory, will be featured in The Art League Gallery, January 6 – February 7, 2011.
With this collection of works, Sigethy is creating an installation that invites the viewer to explore the often unnoticed, yet essential parts of the forest. She emphasizes the “quiet beauty” of the unseen through layers of glass fungi, collages that evoke the striations of cliff sides, and delicate snowflakes.
Alison works almost exclusively with recycled materials; the majority of her glass comes from the lenses of solar collectors. Dead tree trunks and driftwood collected on her kayaking sojourns are used as anchors for delicate crystalline elements. The use of these salvaged materials reinforces a pervasive theme in Alison’s work: we, as a culture, generate too much waste. How can we reuse “trash” to create something beautiful? After leaving the world of marketing and print production to pursue both art and kayaking, Sigethy was drawn to glass for its various hues and effect on light.
A trip to Greenland in 2006 inspired her to work with recycled materials to create her environmentally conscious work.
One of the Washington Glass School’s instructors, Alison was named Torpedo Factory “Artist of the Year” in 2010.
Understory
The Art League Gallery , Room 21
The Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 N. Union St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
Exhibit Dates: January 6 – February 7
Opening Reception:Thursday, January 13th (special performance by Karen Reedy Dance) 6:30-8pm
Artist Talk: 7:00 pm on Thursday, January 20th
Afternoon performance by storyteller Laura J. Bobrow at 1:00 on Sunday, January 23rd
