October 24 – December 6, 2013
Sayward Schoonmaker‘s work centers around the use of clichéd and intimate language, often taking form as poetry installed on walls, spoken in recordings, or in collaboration with moving images. Whether spoken or printed, her texts benefit from her careful attention to the shape, sound, and space between words, resulting in emotionally potent, delicately crafted work. She describes her work as beginning with “a witness to intimacy,” leading to artwork that explores the “sincere gravity and exaggerated sentimentality of emotional transition.” The exhibition “Through Line” is comprised of video, sound, installation, and poetry, and will be augmented by a performative artist talk prior to the opening reception.
Schoonmaker’s work has been featured in galleries, journals, and performance venues. Recent exhibitions include shows at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois Chicago. Originally from Plainfield, NY, Sayward Schoonmaker completed her BFA (2007) at Skidmore College and MFA (2010) degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives in Johnson, Vermont and is an instructor in the Department of English at Johnson State College.