Palmira Miro Gutierrez explains the process for his work at the reception for “No Man is an Island.”
Max Davis
PADUCAH — The Yeiser Art Center held a reception for its “No Man is an Island” exhibit Thursday at Paducah City Hall, celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
The exhibit will be on display at City Hall until the end of the month. It features works by local artists as well as Americana pieces from Yeiser’s collection, made possible through Paducah’s Grant-in-Aid program.
“The name of the show is ‘No Man is an Island,’ which is an old phrase that essentially means that nobody can do it themselves,” said Brooke Yandle, executive director of the Yeiser Art Center. “This idea of both masculinity and identity being a sole enterprise is a falsehood, and so I found this photography work with a poem at the bottom in our permanent collection. The moment I saw it, I was like, ‘That’s the name of the show, that’s the goal of the show.’ I have all these artists that are really going to connect with this exact meaning.”
Palmira Miro Gutierrez stands next to his photo that inspired the exhibit “No Man is an Island” on July 16.
Max Davis
The Paducah Artist Alliance was hosting photographer Palmira Miro Gutierrez from Tucson, Arizona, for a different project when he received a call from Yandle asking if he was bringing anything to Paducah with an Americana theme. Miro Gutierrez’s art uses grayscale images made with collodion photography, a mid-19th-century technique that involved a large camera. His photo, ‘No Man is an Island,’ is the namesake for the exhibit.
He said his photos show Americana by picturing normal Americans and people who might not usually be photographed in their everyday lives.
“I think some people, maybe abroad, think of the United States as a different thing, and maybe LA, they picture something else,” Miro Gutierrez said. “To me, it is like bringing it back down to like grassroots stuff, again, back to working class folks. What do average people look like? To me, that’s important.”
Other artists included in the exhibit include Clarksville, Tennessee, artist Lorenzo Swinton, as well as William Vaugh. Yandle said the exhibit is also a way to show that the center does not exist only in its original location.
“We are an arts organization for artists, and that means sometimes that we need to leave our space and show in other places or make partnerships with other organizations, and that shows itself in different ways,” Yandle said. “I think the most obvious for people is an exhibition at their space, but it also comes out like workshops. We’re working on an art and wellness program, which is going to be working with different under-recognized groups, and then just things like events or being a sort of leading voice in other artists’ adventures.”
The “No Man is an Island” exhibit features a variety of works that showcase America’s diverse crafts and art.
Max Davis
Yandle said that the exhibit shows the great craftsmanship in Paducah and the variety of art available in the area and America as a whole.
“Specifically in this show, we have an artist who’s working not necessarily in fibers, but on blankets, then in oil pastel drawings, we have oil paintings and wet plate photography, there’s just a little bit of everything,” Yandle said. “So when you come to this show, think about the fact that this is the kind of art that can only be created in America because of the high level of craftsmanship in our culture.”
More information on new Yeiser Art Center exhibits and receptions can be found on their Facebook or on their website.