Amanda Rowan’s provocative Place Setting and Ritual self-portrait images and still lifes.
Bonnie Powers and Jeffrey Levin, owners of the multi-faceted Poet and/the Bench lifestyle store and jewelry atelier space at 11 Throckmorton Ave., are showcasing the West Coast Premier of multimedia artist Amanda Rowan‘s provocative Place Setting and Ritual self-portrait images and still lifes in conjunction with her short film Place Setting.
The latter was selected for inclusion in the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival in October. Rowan grew up in Mill Valley, and the exhibition at Poet and/the Bench and screenings at MVFF are a homecoming for the artist who graduated Tam High School and is the daughter of Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee Peter Rowan.
Rowan, in addition to her father and his brothers Chris and Lorin Rowan, has performed at the iconic Sweetwater Music Hall and acted in plays at the Marin Theater Company. In this body of work, Amanda presents her exploration of gender, class and domesticity through the lens of surrealism.
The Place Setting film and photographs take the notion of the forgotten and exploited females of the past, and the iconography associated with them, as a way to respond to contemporary mores – asking in what ways is depicting and performing the feminine a constraint and in what ways is it power?
Poet and/the Bench is hosting a Place Setting Exhibition on Tuesday, October 3, 5:30-7:30 pm, Opening, Place Setting; Photography, Film Trailer and Live Table Setting Installation by the Artist Saturday, October 7, 2:30-5:30 pm, Tea with Amanda; Ongoing, Place Setting, Ritual and Dramatic Landscapes Photographs & Place Setting Film On View Through December
“Always lush and bountiful, her works nod to the renaissance cornucopias captured by the likes of Brueghel, and they play with the sincerity of natural reverence and feminine forms beloved to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; yet Rowan takes these naturalistic depictions through the lens of print advertising and media. Unquestionably maximalist, Rowan’s “Ritual” pieces are styled with a collector’s eye.” ~ Ellen Stone
Place Setting premiers at the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival:
Monday, October 9, at 8:00 pm at the Rafael 3
Tuesday, October 10, at 2:00 pm at the Rafael 3
Place Setting Exhibition at Poet and/the Bench:
Tuesday, October 3, 5:30-7:30 Opening Date TBC, Panel Discussion with Amanda Rowan; details forthcoming.
Saturday, October 7, High Tea; details forthcoming
Place Setting, Ritual and Dramatic Landscapes On View Ongoing