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"News/Not News" is a series of mixed media paintings and three-dimensional wall pieces by the New York-based political artist, Marcia Annenberg. Her subject is our media and its declining quality over the past twenty years. She not only casts a critical eye at news corporations and how marketing needs trump truth, but she also holds the public responsible for allowing itself to be manipulated and duped by the vagaries of popular culture. Hard news is not only diminished but suppressed and with it, Annenberg insists, our democracy is in peril.
Annenberg uses sardonic wit and irony to update iconic works of art by artists such as Grant Wood, Edward Hopper, Tom Wesselman, and Gerhard Richter. Even if the viewer is not aware of the specific references to current events (post 9/11) in these paintings and wall installations, there is a palpable sense of loss and foreboding in spite of the often candy-colored pop palate. These are not worlds in which we want to live.
Annenberg's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States, among them the Raandesk Gallery, the Puffin Room Gallery, and the Makor Gallery in New York City. Other venues include: the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the Red Chair Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri; the Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, California; and the Womenâs Museum in Dallas, Texas. Her work is in the permanent collections of the London Jewish Museum of Art, the Yad Vashem Art Museum in Jerusalem, The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum in Vilnius, and the Florida Holocaust Museum. Additional information about the artist can be found on www.mannenberg.com.
An artist reception and talk will be held in the Bernstein Gallery on Sunday, February 3, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. The gallery is located on the lower level of Robertson Hall in the Woodrow Wilson School. Regular hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. â 6:00 p.m., and open by appointment on the weekends.
Picture credit: No News is Good News, c. 2012
Mixed Media, 60 x 74 inches
Photo: D. James Dee
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