Exhibition
CCP Member Solo Show – Nomi Silverman: Palpable Process
EXHIBITION DETAILS:
LOCATION: Lithography Studio Gallery
OPENING DATE: Sunday, December 10, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, December 10, 2023 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM
CLOSING DATE: Sunday, February 18, 2024
ARTIST TALK: Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 2:00 PM See Recording Here
Nomi Silverman is a visual storyteller whose work elevates the voices of outsiders and those perceived as “other”–people on the margins of society. She often approaches a broader story by focusing on an individual narrative, putting a human face to the generic nameless, faceless masses that are often portrayed in the media. Her subject matter has included homelessness, racial violence, Matthew Shepard, and Iraq. Most recently, she has turned her lens to topics of immigration, emigration, and refugees.
For Palpable Process, Silverman selected prints from her personal collection that will provide insight into her storytelling process, and demonstrate how she collects and creates images that will ultimately come together into a cohesive artbook or exhibit.
Nomi Silverman’s entry was awarded Best in Show in CCP’s 2022 Annual Members’ Exhibition. The award grants the artist a solo show the following year.
Artist Statement:
I am a storyteller. I use stories to talk about larger socio-political issues dealing with outsiders and those perceived of as “others”—those who have lesser voices and are on the margins of society. I often use the voice of one to put a human face to the generic nameless, faceless masses that are often portrayed in the media. My subject matter has included homelessness, racial violence, Matthew Shepard, and Iraq. I work in many mediums: sculpture, drawing/pastel, and printmaking. I often combine different media to create different textural and visual mark making.
The most recent theme I have been working on deals with immigration, emigration, and refugees. As part of this theme, I recently completed a two-part accordion artist’s book, “I Had a Home Once, Syria; I Live in Berlin”, about one Syrian refugee, Abdullah Saleh, whom I met in Istanbul. Here I use the true story of one person as a stand-in for the millions of people who make a similar exodus every day.
As some members of my family were killed because of state sponsored terrorism, I am acutely aware of what happens to others perceived of as outsiders. My family, like so many others, left the home they knew in Minsk, Belarus for a better life in America. The pogroms—a foreshadowing of the horrors of the Holocaust that would take the lives of many of my family members who stayed behind—was one of the many reasons my grandmother, grandfather, and uncle boarded a boat in 1930 and landed in New York, where my mother, and eventually I, was born.
By giving stature to the voice of those on the margins of society, by letting their stories become part of the art historical record, it gives importance to them, and brings them out of the margins into the center. It does not let their stories die, and it humanizes easily overlooked, generalized, and uncomfortable issues. And when someone or something is personalized, it is more difficult to dismiss or look the other way.
Please visit https://nomisilverman.com/ to learn more.
Exhibiting Concurrently in our Premier GRS Gallery
With Fresh Eyes: Annual Members’ Exhibition
