Jaime Scholnick

Gaza: Mowing the Lawn

June 6 – July 18, 2015
Artist Reception: Saturday, June 6, 2015, 3 – 6 p.m.

For her upcoming exhibition, Jaime Scholnick takes on the serious and disturbing issue of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict. During the months of July and August, 2014, the Israeli army launched a systematic bombardment of the people of Palestine. The term is known as “Mowing the Lawn” and is a periodic “cleansing” of the Palestinian Territories (every 2-3 years). There are many rationalizations for these acts, which summarily kills innocent victims, mainly women and children. Gaza; Mowing the Lawn, takes a cue from Picasso’s Guernica or Goya’s moving paintings of the Spanish Civil War.

“Over the 50 days these latest “mowing the lawn” attacks occurred, I was getting dozens of horrific pictures sent to me over the internet. They were graphic, tragic and so incredibly sad. It was hard to look at them. I started drawing over them, in part, as a way to make myself look at the carnage and realize that this was happening to babies, children, women, families. I felt that doing these paintings, lovingly, was my attempt at honoring these victims,” says Scholnick.

Scholnick’s paintings/collages became individual prayers allowing her to work through this incomprehensible period of violence she was being shown. The result is a series of 50 scenes captured during 50 days in the summer of 2014 in Gaza. As one is drawn into these individual pieces you are seduced by the overall line work. Because it is now art, it becomes easier to gaze upon the subject. One can uncover layers of reality, wrapped in line.

Scholnick adds, “Someone asked me lately, after looking at this series, “whose side am I on?” My answer was simply, “I am against ALL of it! There is absolutely no justification for this type of inhumanity towards any human!”

Jaime Scholnick received her MFA from the Claremont Graduate University in 1991. From 1994 – 1999 she resided in Japan, studying paper making and immersing herself in Japanese society. Awarded a paper making residency from The Museum of Art, Tokyo (1997), Ms Scholnick’s work has been included in exhibitions in Japan as well as Amsterdam and Berlin. Scholnick’s work has been shown throughout the US and locally including CB1 Gallery, Angles Gallery, PØST, The Torrance Art Museum, Defamation of Character at PS1, Cross-Cuts at Otis College of Art & Design, Big Plastic at The Armory Center for the Arts, and Guns and Knives, Fahrenheit Gallery, Kansas City, MO. Her video short Hello Kitty Gets A Mouth has been included in various film festivals such as The Santa Fe Film Festival, Women In The Directors Chair Film Festival, Chicago, Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, Kansas City, MO and The Silverlake Film Festival.

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