Visual art of Katherine Ace: A poetic tale perspective

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A conjuror-artist, Katherine Ace’s paintings, displayed in “Behold Revelation: The Fairy Tale Paintings of Katherine Ace,” rearranges the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and brings magic to life. Located in Kean University’s Karl and Helen Burger Art Gallery in the Center for Academic Success until September 30th, 2015, Ace’s angle is one where visual art meets prose with no clear-cut format, breaking all industry rules, and setting an original standard.

Not at all shy to take risks, Ace leaves her audience with thought provoking questions, allegory to decipher, and poetry to analyze. Providing a difficult task for an average interpreter to grasp, there are three consistent layers found in Ace’s gallery; all of which are necessary to be aware of when navigating the true essence of her work. Just when you think you’ve got Ace all figured out through her symbolic and informational accents, yet another perspective forces her audience to engage in her mysterious style.

Ace incorporates “little intricacies in each piece,” said Erin Coffey, overseer of the new Katherine Ace Exhibit. “If you look close in the rocks, there are things collaged underneath where you’ll find faces, or Mona Lisa, an octopus, the wings, the newspapers, all butterfly wings underneath, and then the pieces that have anything that’s a log or a wood,” Coffey explained. “There are small pieces inside of little mannequins, or paper clips worked into the wood, to make it look like wood from afar. Then you get up close and realize that there are things collaged inside of them,” Coffey clarified. “This has drawn in the most amount of people so far that I’ve found,” concluded Coffey. “It’s our most successful exhibit since I’ve been here in January.”

Featured paintings include “Ashputtle,” “Clouds,” “Constellations,” “Devil’s Three Hairs,” “Fisherman’s Wife,” “Fitcher’s Feathered Bird (with eggs),” “Fitcher’s Feathered Bird (with feathers),” “Flood,” “Frog King,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Holes,” “In The Beginning,” “Little Red Cap,” “Many Fur,” “Rapunzel,” “Six Swans,” “Tales From The Ground Up,” and “Wishing Well.”

Other art exhibits featured at Kean University this semester include Jun Ku Kang & Garam Lee’s Bit & Soom Chapter 2 located in the Nancy Dryfoos Gallery in the Nancy Thompson Library until September 28th, 2015 and, An Exhibition on Social Justice and Immigration at the Human Rights Institute Gallery from September 2015 through January 2016.

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