Norma Schwartz
Shape of Memories: Sculpture by Norma Schwartz
Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery
April 27th, 2019 – June 9, 2019
Exhibition Reception: May 4th, 2019 2-4PM
ARTIST STATEMENT
I was born in Argentina a few months before the end of the World War and the atrocities of this event have been a presence throughout my life.
After starting my practice as a psychoanalyst, raising a family and after many years of involvement in social and political issues during a harsh dictatorship, I emigrated to Spain in the 70’s where hopes for new democratic regime was emerging.
For almost 20 years in Spain, I was involved with women’s issues from a psychoanalytic perspective and at the same time exploring artistic languages of expressions.
Moving to the States in the middle 80’s – while keeping my practice as a psychoanalyst – was the opportunity to pursue a new passion: sculpting.
As a sculptor, developing the technics, exploring new materials, creating new ways of inhabiting a three-dimensional space, realizing the importance of light, gave me the opportunity to express what for me was impossible to express in a different language; a language with no words.
When starting a new work, even when I am sure where I want to go, I soon loose control and the work becomes independent of me, with it’s own power and at the same time, a mirror of something profound and unknown. The final result takes me always by surprise.
The teaching of psychoanalysis is also present in my work, and reflects, when naming each piece, a need to make a mark trough a word that symbolized my curiosity and passion for the theoretical knowledge.
My work as a sculptor is shaped by my experience as a psychoanalyst. I travel from one place to another – from my office to my studio – taking with me ideas of a space that one occupies in the relationship with the other. In this way, sculpting becomes a way of symbolizing and telling stories through abstract memories.
To learn more about Norma Schwartz visit her website at http://www.normaschwartz-sculptor.com/
Follow her on Instagram at @normaschwartzart