March 20 - April 15, 2025

Landscapes: Heidi Nitze

Women’s Work : Adrianne Lobel

On The Wall: Herd Mentality: Vija Doks

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 20, 6 - 8pm 

Landscapes

Carter Burden Gallery presents Landscapes by Heidi Nitze, an exhibition of paintings and drawings with decisive and painterly marks depicting intimate provincial scenes. Nitze is entranced by the colors and forms of the farms and forests where she lived as a child. What became her adult creative process is rooted in those early experiences. Her practice for landscapes begins with finding a view that is inherently dynamic, with a far horizon, an active sky, and landforms with an interesting composition of their own. Houses, machinery, and animals are like decorations in a huge tapestry. Her goal is to convey the amazing beauty and variety of the natural world and the complexity of human relationships to it. Nitze says, “The intensity of life and its fragility are what I care about, the vitality of the moment before it disappears. This is why I make art: maybe it will outlast the vanishing moment.”

Women’s Work

In Woman’s Work, artist Adrianne Lobel elevates a traditionally domestic craft into an artistic statement with her solo exhibition of intricate needlepoint tapestries. Rooted in personal history, the artist’s practice draws inspiration from the creative culture of the 1960s and 70s, when handcrafts were very popular. Introduced to needlepoint by her father, Lobel developed an early appreciation for the meditative nature of stitching. Decades later, after returning to painting, she discovered a way to merge the two disciplines—transforming original paintings into needlepoints. Each piece is a labor-intensive process, taking six weeks to two months to complete. Created in the evenings while watching television—much like in childhood—the works embody both patience and precision. In previous exhibitions, Lobel has displayed paintings alongside her needlepoints; however, Woman’s Work marks the first time the tapestries stand alone. The exhibition’s title is a playful yet pointed commentary on the historical undervaluing of textile arts. By presenting these works in a gallery setting, Adrianne Lobel challenges perceptions of “women’s work” and asserts needlepoint’s rightful place in contemporary art discourse.3

Herd Mentality

Herd Mentality is an evolving installation project in Carter Burden Gallery’s On the Wall space by Vija Doks. In this project, which lasts for three months, Doks will depict a different group of animals in her unique style. In her first month she explored reindeer, then in her second she depicted penguins in Going to the Zoo. Now in the third month, she renders a pod of spinner dolphins. Doks' paintings, usually on a field of black emerging in ghostly and luminous white, create a striking contrast between subject and background. Her works showcase the diversity and beauty of animal life and emphasize their fragile position in our present man-made environment. Doks states, “Through these works, I hope to stir in the viewer a sense of joy and wonder and awaken them to the magic of animals. I am an environmentalist and animal lover, and I hope to raise awareness of our interconnectivity through my art.”

Herd Mentality is on view from January 9 – April 15, 2024.