On a dark and stormy Friday evening, Choate students piled into the Paul Mellon Arts Center (PMAC), lured by the promise of food, warmth, and eye-opening artwork. That night, from 5:30-7:30, Choate held an artist reception for Kari Cholnoky ’06 and Corina S. Alvarezdelugo ’81. Both artists’ work are being showcased in the PMAC as part of the exhibit “Mirrors and Windows”.
Cholnoky’s distinctively playful work is displayed in the main building, and upon walking in one can see that it deserves its own category. Cholnoky’s wall sculptures use materials ranging from chalk and synthetic hair to space blankets and pom-poms. The titles of her works are just as unusual – examples include “Bent Nose,” “Jelly Disk,” and “Plug.” Lauren Dorsey ’18, an observer, commented, “Her work is unusual and gives a perspective on abstract art that I have not seen before.”
Cholnoky affectionately describes her work as “organized chaos.” She loves making an image by combining different materials in lieu of simply rendering the desired image through paint. Cholnoky intended for her collection to give Choate students a multi-faceted picture of her artwork. “I wanted to give students a breadth of my work instead of something that is really focused. I felt like for a school it was better to show a range.”
Ten out of 14 of Cholnoky’s works were squares with definite boundaries. “I like using squares to put a boundary at the edge of my work: here is where it ends, contained and controlled. Squares holds the painting together so that it does not spin off into outer space,” she explained. One of her most notable works was a square piece titled “Expiration Date” made of faux fur and featuring spots of urethane foam and acrylic.
Across the building, Alvarezdelugo was busy showcasing her collection of sculptures, paintings, and prints, and, in one case, the device that she used to create her prints. “I love to tell my story with different approaches,” she commented. One unique part of her exhibit was that next to each of her six large canvas paintings, there was a framed photograph of what the wall looked like once her paintings were taken down. This series of photos showed the progression of the wall over the making of her six paintings, all of which were made at her residency at the Vermont Studio Center.
Alvarezdelugo believes that her current collection is, in many ways, a continuation of her previous exhibition. “You can see that the exhibit on display makes sense and connects to what I was working on before,” she commented. “My series are never really finished. There is always a concept or a theme that inspires me to do the work, and that is why it is so hard to put an end to a series.”
Instead of telling everyone what she wanted to convey, Alvarezdelugo wants viewers to try to puzzle it out. Though she left hints in the titles, she wants the viewer to picture themselves in the work and find out what her pieces mean to them. “I always have some certain idea in my mind when I begin, but I like leaving some ambiguity in it,” she said.
Viewers seemed to respond positively. Kaki Su ’19 commented, “I loved how Alvarezdelugo, by making a slight color change, altered the whole impression of the image, especially in the drawings, which have the same basic composition.”
All in all, with their unique exhibitions, Alvarezdelugo and Cholnoky provided the breath of fresh air and hint of warmth that students needed on that cold and windy Friday night.
