Whimsical and Environmental Sculpture Featured at Academy Art Museum

Jan Kirsh DCA Show 133 small portrait (1280x850) (400 x 266)Intrigue, whimsy, humor or drama is found in the sensuous curves and shapes of the familiar forms Jan Kirsh creates in her sculpture. Kirsh’s voluptuous and exuberant vegetable and fruit forms reflect her desire to provide commentary on the human form mirrored in familiar vegetal shapes. Kirsh, an award winning landscape designer and artist, will be featured in an exhibition, Jan Kirsh: Forms from the Garden, at the Academy Art Museum, from May 4, 2013 through July 7, 2013. An artist’s reception for the exhibition will be held Friday, May 10, 2013 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Kirsh’s sculpture debuted in 2009 at the Architectural Digest Show in New York City. She has also been featured at the Philadelphia Flower Show, the Dupont Circle “Green Week” show in Washington, DC, Ladew Topiary Gardens Garden Day, and at the Dorchester Center for the Arts in Cambridge. Locally, her sculpture can be found at the Race Street Gallery within Joie de Vivre Gallery in Cambridge, Cottage Studio and Gallery in Easton, and Red Queen Gallery in Onancock, VA. Her sculpture is also in Beals and Abbate Fine Arts on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM.

The columns and arches of cathedrals and monasteries were inspired by the trees of ancient sacred groves. From May 1 through August 1, 2013, environmental artists Howard and Mary McCoy will create Cedar Colonnade in the Museum’s courtyard making arches with bare cedar branches. Bridging nature and architecture, this site-specific installation will lend the space the atmosphere of a medieval abbey cloister and intimate one of the primary functions of an art museum – to provide a non-sectarian, modern-day space for contemplation and spiritual experience. As with last year’s Branch Dance, the branches will cast changing shadows into the interior of the Museum throughout the day. The McCoys have been working together collaboratively since 1985 and have shown their work in the U.S., Ireland, Wales and New Zealand.

Admission to the Academy Art Museum is $3 for non–members, children under 12 admitted free. The Museum is open Monday and Friday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. with extended hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday hours are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The First Friday of each month, the Museum is open until 7 p.m. The Museum is located at 106 South St., Easton, MD, 21601. For further information, call 410-822-ARTS (2787) or visitwww.academyartmuseum.org

In photo: Sculptor Jan Kirsh, will be featured in the Academy Art Museum exhibition, Jan Kirsh: Forms from the Garden, from May 4, 2013 through July 7, 2013. Photography by Stephen Cherry.