' Deborah Nehmad Wasted Installation, Kim Foster Gallery
Wasted
April 09 - May 09, 2015

Wasted


Press Release

We are pleased to exhibit “Wasted” works on paper by Deborah G Nehmad. This is her first solo exhibition at the Kim Foster Gallery. While visually stunning from a distance, the work addresses the issue of gun violence in America. Nehmad incorporates repetitive mark making to translate visually what cannot be adequately conveyed through the abstraction of the written language.

Nehmad’s drawing series gradually reveals that nothing has changed in terms of gun violence in the US over the past decade. The burned holes in “wasted” and “(ii)” represent the number of children and adults killed by guns in 2003 (left panel), 2004 (center panel) and 2005 (right panel). “(iii)” represents annual average gun fatalities for the period 2009 – 2013. The stitched red crosses represent homicides, the black x’s suicides and the burned holes left bare are accidents or of unknown intent. Casualties by police intervention are stitched over in red and black. The composition is configured from blood splatter patterns.

Using woodblocks that were burned during the process of creating the pieces, Nehmad inked and rubbed the surface of the blocks to develop a series of unique printed works titled “black and blue.” The entire constellation of blue dots represents many of the victims throughout the last decade caught in the crosshairs of gun violence.

While all artists want their work to be discussed, Nehmad has an even greater mission – the possibility that viewers will talk about the issues involved.

Nehmad is a Honolulu-based artist. After years as a practicing attorney and working in politics, she chose a new path and earned an MFA in printmaking. Nehmad has participated in numerous solo shows and group exhibitions. Her work can be found in many public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, Yale University Art Gallery, the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Smith College Museum of Art, Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, the Hammer Museum of UCLA, the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Hawaii State Art Museum.