The Wagner College Gallery is proud to host a virtual exhibition of eight paired works by Kyle Staver and Janice Nowinski, which will be displayed on the college’s website through the end of May. Here’s where you will find the exhibition.
Artists Kyle Staver and Janice Nowinski, revered by painters and critics alike, have been friends for more than 30 years and have shared their passion for color and form.
“This exhibition celebrates their friendship and the parallels that have developed in their paintings,” said gallery director Jenny Toth, an associate professor of visual art at Wagner College. “Together, they have paired their work so that we can see and appreciate some of the common themes in their content and the use of the abstract language of painting.”
The artists posted a joint essay about their joint exhibition.
“1985. We met in grad school,” they said, recalling their studies at Yale University. “The crits there were murder and soul sucking. Neither of us was making paintings that were considered ‘cutting edge’.”
Their friendship, like their art, was created over time — and not without struggle.
“Yale had been a huge proponent of the ‘Gain through Pain’ method of dialogue,” they said. “This left us without a clue about how to speak to each other without wounding, shaming or thwarting. Through trial and error — a lot of error — we began to build trust and history. We learned to make a place that was safe to expose our most intimate and fledgling ideas.”
The current exhibition consists of eight pairings of images by both artists.
“While we were putting together the pairings for this project, we were surprised by how much the paintings have in common,” they said. “Not sure why we would be surprised. Every conversation we have is about our work, what we are looking at or where our next road trip to see paintings will be. ... We acknowledge and celebrate that our work is influenced by our friendship.”
Originally from Minnesota, Kyle Staver settled in New York following graduate studies at Yale University. The recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2015) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize (2015), Staver was also recognized as a distinguished member of the National Academy of New York. Her work has been exhibited at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the National Academy, Fordham University and Haverford College. She received her BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and, a decade later, received her MFA in Painting from Yale University’s College of Art. Visit her on the web at kylestaver.com.
Janice Nowinski was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Rockaway Park. She received her MFA in Painting from Yale University. She has exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy Museum, American University Museum, John Davis Gallery, Zurcher Gallery, Leigh Morse Fine Arts, Steven Harvey Fine Arts Projects, Kent Fine Arts, Lohin Geduld and Schweitzer Contemporary. She is the recipient of a purchase prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has been featured and reviewed in the Hudson Review, the New Criterion, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post and American Artist. Nowinski lives and paints in Brooklyn, N.Y. Visit her on the web at janicenowinski.com.
