Fast-acting Energetics (detail), Toni Gentilli, wildcrafted botanical pigments (Helianthus tuberosus, Morus alba, Carya illinoinensis, Ericameria nauseosa, Alcea rosea, and Opuntia phaeacantha) and clay from the Rio Grande, 100.5×43 inches, 2022. (Courtesy Harwood Art Center).
Two shows at Harwood Art Center show how science and the environment can be viewed from a different angle. They also highlight emotions and relationships.
Viewers can see these opposing works by Toni Gentilli and Robyn A. Frank in “Bodies of Evidence” and “Relationship is an activity” through June 2.
Gentilli was working in an Arizona archaeological dig when she got a chronic infection.
Coccidioides, also known as Valley Fever, infected one of her lungs and simultaneously fuelled her artistic practice. At 28 she had also developed diabetes.
“I’ve been living with chronic illness for about 35 years,” she said in a telephone interview from her parked car at Los Poblanos in Los Ranchos, where she makes the company’s herbal products. “They’re auto-immune diseases, but I feel they were environmentally triggered. No one in my family has these diseases.”
Gentilli quit her career as an archaeologist to begin a creative path that began with photography. She was a fan of a plant-based diet and so included plants in her images. Gentilli chose an ancient technique called anthotypes. This is where the print develops under the sun. Gentilli started using plant materials for her photographic emulsion. This involved crushing the plants and then painting them on paper. She created her own negatives and developed a relationship with both the material and the content.
Her creative combustion continued.
“During the pandemic, I learned how to weave,” Gentilli said. “Then I started using natural pigments as dyes.”
The exploration revealed a parallel between humans and the environment. Her current work continues to explore this link using plants and discarded medical equipment.
For “One Lunar Cycle” Gentilli combined natural blood sugar regulators such as the golden sunchoke plant and mulberry leaves and berries. She embroider the watercolor using diabetic test strips.
“This show is also very much about healing,” Gentilli said.
She stated that the bright and positive colors indicate recovery. Yellow represents vitality, pink symbolizes love, and purple symbolises spirituality.
The hand in her “Law of Correspondence” painting is an ode to both of her well-used hands. It was painted using pigment derived from chamisa, prickly pears, and chamisa.
“I’m sending them a little bit of love because I have to poke my fingers from seven to 10 times a day,” Gentilli said. “It’s also a gesture of vulnerability and prayer and reverence.”
As Above, so Below: Porphyrin pair, Toni Gentilli, handwoven tapestry and macrame from cotton yarn dyed wild with wildcrafted botanical pigments (Helianthus Tuberosus, Morus Alba, Ericameria Nauseosa. Alcea rosea. and Opuntia Pheacantha), 96×32 ins, 2022. (Courtesy Harwood Art Center).
Robyn A. Frank, detail, acrylic paint on Baltic Birch Panel, matte medium, and isolation topcoat, 2022. (Courtesy Harwood Art Center).
(Courtesy Harwood Art Center).
Law of Correspondence – Left Hand, Toni Gentilli. Wildcrafted botanical pigments (Opuntiaphaeacantha or Ericameria nauseosa), on cotton rag paper, 42x21inches, 2022. (Courtesy Harwood Art Center)
2496723
Template => image-viewer
Datasource => media_library
FooGallery Settings
===================
foogallery_items_view => manage
image-viewer_alignment => fg-center
image-viewer_border_size => fg-border-thin
image-viewer_caption_desc_source => caption
image-viewer_caption_title_source => none
image-viewer_drop_shadow => fg-shadow-outline
image-viewer_exif_view_status => no
image-viewer_hover_effect_caption_visibility => fg-caption-hover
image-viewer_hover_effect_icon => fg-hover-zoom
image-viewer_hover_effect_transition => fg-hover-fade
image-viewer_hover_effect_type => normal
image-viewer_lazyload => disabled
image-viewer_lightbox => foogallery
image-viewer_lightbox_auto_progress => no
image-viewer_lightbox_buttons_display => no
image-viewer_lightbox_caption_override => override
image-viewer_lightbox_caption_override_desc => caption
image-viewer_lightbox_caption_override_title => none
image-viewer_lightbox_fit_media => no
image-viewer_lightbox_hover_buttons => no
image-viewer_lightbox_info_alignment => left
image-viewer_lightbox_info_overlay => yes
image-viewer_lightbox_info_position => right
image-viewer_lightbox_no_scrollbars => no
image-viewer_lightbox_show_caption_button => yes
image-viewer_lightbox_show_fullscreen_button => yes
image-viewer_lightbox_show_nav_buttons => yes
image-viewer_lightbox_show_thumbstrip_button => no
image-viewer_lightbox_theme => fg-dark
image-viewer_lightbox_thumbs => bottom
image-viewer_lightbox_thumbs_captions => no
image-viewer_lightbox_thumbs_captions_alignment => default
image-viewer_lightbox_transition => fade
image-viewer_loaded_effect => fg-loaded-fade-in
image-viewer_loading_icon => fg-loading-default
image-viewer_looping => enabled
image-viewer_state => yes
image-viewer_state_mask => foogallery-{id}
image-viewer_theme => fg-light
image-viewer_thumb_cropping_options => background_fill
image-viewer_thumbnail_link => image
image-viewer_thumbnail_size =>
width => 640
height => 360
crop => 1
image-viewer_video_autoplay => yes
image-viewer_video_hover_icon => fg-video-default
image-viewer_video_size => 640×360
Information about Attachments
===============
2496718 =>
url => https://www.abqjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/07/d04_jd_08may_4harwood-scaled.jpg
type => image
width => 640
height => 360
2496717 =>
url => https://www.abqjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/07/d04_jd_08may_5harwood.jpg
type => image
width => 640
height => 360
2496715 =>
url => https://www.abqjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/07/d04_jd_08may_2harwood.jpg
type => image
width => 640
height => 360
2496719 =>
url => https://www.abqjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/07/d04_jd_08may_3harwood-scaled.jpg
type => image
width => 640
height => 360
FooGallery Debug Info : End –>
She papered the background of “Fast Acting Energetics” with the inserts from fast-acting insulin. She painted them with mulberry, prickly pear and Rio Grande clay.
“It transforms it into sort of healing and positive energy,” Gentilli said. “I’m trying to understand the ways both the human and the environment are being impacted by environmental degradation.”
Frank’s acrylic painting explores relationships with Modernism’s bold geometry and color. After growing up in Tampa Florida, she moved to Albuquerque, New York in 2019.
“I’d been in New York for 16 years and my life there took me away from my art,” she said.
“The idea is taking these emotional concepts and creating a visual allegory,” she continued. “I’m thinking about things like shape and color as emotional ideas.”
Her color palette reflects New Mexico’s blue sky and rock formations.
“Each piece is trying to capture those elusive moments of light and change,” she said.
She also said that relationships change from moment-to-moment.
With its rectangles and squares of bold color, “Quilt 01” hearkens back to Frank’s grandmother, who was a quilter. The blocks align to create new visions.
“The color palette was inspired by some clothes my grandma made me,” Frank explained. “I learned a little bit of sewing from her; I never quilted. But making this collection made me want to pursue that more.”
Frank moved from Florida, New York to attend the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
“I think (art) has always been the way I work through my experience of the world,” she said.
Frank has shown her work at Zendo Coffee and at Vital Spaces, as well as in the Harwood’s emerging artist show.
