Phoenix, AZ - In a special exhibition curated by Annie Waters, seven female artists from the valley come together for a dynamic art exhibition inside the Vault Gallery at ASU’s downtown library.

Located in the heart of downtown Phoenix, ASU’s newest gallery provides a creative and intellectually stimulating university experience within a vibrant, urban campus. The ASU Downtown campus was created as part of a larger plan with the City of Phoenix to revitalize the city’s urban core into a 24/7 metroplex where people live, work and entertain, and can enjoy the cultural fabric of the city. The Vault Gallery is emerging as the newly discovered jewel to the larger Phoenix community.

Previously the First National Bank of Arizona, the University Center incorporates several historic elements into the building. The bank vault and the columns from the original structure remain visible in the library on the lower level of the building. While all the walls within the library exhibit artwork, the vault itself is the center piece of the gallery.

Serving over 15,000 students, faculty and visitors per year, the budding Vault Gallery begins its third exhibition season with large-scale photography, intimate drawings, oil and acrylic paintings and collage. All works are original, created by seven emerging and established valley women artists, hand picked by Waters. 

Paintings by Tempe artist, Candice Eisenfeld, combine her memories of textures, figures and panoramic landscapes to tell visual stories that are at once familiar yet disconcerting.
In her painting titled Tantra/Path, the viewer is offered a window into a romanticized, ethereal landscape, juxtaposed with an adjacent panel of floating silhouetted pornographic figures disguised as a Victorian wallpaper pattern.  These suggestive, sexualized figures are carefully arranged and layered over an abyss of painterly background abstraction. 

Needless to say, her work calls for ‘a closer look’.
“The multiple images within my work comment upon simultaneous observations of reality within a historical perspective and the ambiguities that divide them….. I don't believe in universal truths, only perceptions of reality,” she explains regarding her stance on feminism.

Works by her colleagues offer different viewpoints on subjects ranging from feminism to personal identity to regional interests. Despite their artistic differences, the women in the exhibition are supportive of one another.

The landscape paintings of emerging artist Ann Griffin are showcased within the Vault Gallery proper, located at the center of the library. Like a cocoon, the works of the established artists hang displayed on the surrounding walls to support Griffen and welcome her to the art community.
“A Closer Look” is on display Sept 3- Dec 18 2010.

FACT SHEET

WHAT:           
“A CLOSER LOOK”       Works by Valley Women Artists  

WHO:             
Ann Griffin, Candice Eisenfeld, Carolyn Lavender; Kate Timmerman, Linda Ingraham, Marilyn Szabo, Rebecca Bergman

WHERE:       
The Vault  Gallery: located on the lower level of the University Center in the INFORMATION COMMONS at  411 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix AZ

 WHEN:         
Sept. 3- Dec 18, 2010