The exhibit, which is Anderson's celebration of her 74th birthday, includes paper dolls created in 1949 and 1950, oil paintings, watercolors and recent recycled broken dish mosaics.
An artist who usually works in series, Anderson will exhibit work from her postcard series, created in 1971-2 when she was traveling, living out of a suitcase and mailing art seemed the easiest way to transport it. Her later mummy portraits were inspired a Fellowship year in Egypt. The Fan Fares, women having hot flashes, are her personal response to the collaborative Hot Flash Fan created with Judy Chicago, in 1985. Subsequent paintings include "Women in Conversation", "Ladies Room Mirror", "Mythic Women Juxtaposed" and "Mortal Sin/ Mitigating Virtue."
A Kentuckian, Anderson studied History of Art at Wellesley College and received a graduate degree in painting from The American University . After five years in Washington, D.C., she moved to Chicago where she was Assistant Professor and Dean of Students in the School of the Art Institute. She was a founding faculty a St. Francis High School in
Louisville and for seven years served as the Director of the Kentucky Foundation for Women. In 2008 she was commissioned to create images of the Nine Classical Muses for the Bingham Poetry Room at the University of Louisville Ekstrom Library.
Anderson insists that the PYRO exhibition is not only about the past. MOVIN FORWARD, mounted in the small Garden Gallery, will be an ongoing work in progress. New paintings, "Hidden Faces" will be created during the weeks of the exhibition and added to the walls. They intend to establish a dialogue with the portraits of Louisville's famous in the nearby Bar at Proof on Main, by raising questions such as: Why do some people hide their faces while others seek public recognition? How does the viewer's response to the hidden differ from the reaction to the recognized?
LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD opens on February 20 at PYRO Gallery, 624 West Main Street with a reception from 5 to 9 pm. PYRO Gallery participates in the First Friday Trolley Hop and will be open from 5-9 on March 7. The show will close on March 28. PYRO Gallery is open Thursday – Saturday from ll am until 6 pm and by appointment. More info at
www.pyrogallery.com and www. annstewartanderson.com.
