Exhibition Dates: May 21 – June 15, 2024

Opening Reception: Thurs, May 23, 2024, 5PM-8PM

Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat 11AM-6PM

Bowery Gallery is pleased to present Janet Gorzegno: Soul Retrieval, the artist’s sixth solo exhibition with
the gallery, with an opening reception on May 23, 5-8pm. Gorzegno presents a collection of gouache and
egg tempera paintings for this exhibition. The paintings reflect Gorzegno’s practice of working meditatively,
and serve as a conduit to help viewers experience reverie and contemplation.

The works are striking, intimate and iconic, painted in a spectrum of pure and muted tones. Measuring from
3 inches square to 18 x 9 inches, they are presented in singular and triptych formats. The dominant recurring
feature in the works is a human head in profile, symbolic of consciousness. Gorzegno’s paintings possess the
stillness and otherworldliness of early Renaissance paintings, though Gorzegno’s heads are not intended as
recognizable likenesses. They are imagined—colorful amalgams of spirit and personhood distilled. None are
known by the artist in this life.

A layered ‘quietness’ surrounds the heads, as if a shift in consciousness has not transpired but is about to.
Gorzegno works with these shifts in mind, harnessing her intense concentration where imagination and
discovery coalesce in color, form, and balance. Recent experiences with loss have led her to reflect on the
passage of time and life’s mysteries. In a spirit of healing and restoration, she revisits the visual language of
former works, pulling elements into the present, and recontextualizing her visual language.
Up close and personal, each painting is distinct. Stepping back, collectively viewing the exhibition, one
senses being part of something familiar as if in the presence of something both ancient and contemporary.
Gorzegno’s paintings invite connection. They are a conduit for contemplation on endings, awakenings, and
transformations.

Janet Gorzegno received her MFA in Painting from Yale School of Art, studied at the New York Studio
School and received her BA from Drew University. Gorzegno has an abiding interest in sacred art forms and
music, and has studied the traditional art of Icon Writing alongside master practitioners. Gorzegno has also
been a fellow at numerous artist residencies, from the Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France to residencies
stateside—from northeast Georgia to upstate New York. Gorzegno exhibits her work nationally and
internationally. She is a longtime educator of drawing and painting, currently a Professor of Art for The
University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. When not in the studio, she can be found playing roots
music with friends.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm.

For more information, please contact the gallery at 646-230-6655 or info@bowerygallery.org