Time is of the Essence:  Recent Works by Sheila Goloborotko

OPENING RECEPTION

SAT November 16 | 6 – 8pm
The reception is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

EXHIBIT DATES

Through January 11, 2020

For time to be of essence requires us to believe in the sense of urgency and that our assumed contract with one another has value, requiring us to be accountable to the other and the world around us, not just ourselves. It is a theme that pulses throughout the material and social practice of Sheila Goloborotko, a diverse practice that is being beautifully represented at Yellow House through a dynamic display of works on paper, sculptures, installations, and mixed media pieces.

As a printmaker and multimedia artist, Goloborotko engages in a restless, relentless process that allows singular ideas to emerge in the guise of numerous artistic actions like characters that reappear in novellas over time, or seeds that are blown ashore and thrive in diverse climates. The resulting works take symbols of intransience and stasis—pillars of Western culture, founding documents, language, natural systems, and democracy itself—and make them changeable, shifting, active, unsettled. In an ideal merging of method and message, Goloborotko invites us into the chaos to find meaning and to engage in important questions about our relationship with nature, information, and one another.

Goloborotko’s “poetic activism” is evident in her studio practice, which is firmly rooted in the sense of Community. And for her ‘Community’ is more than a group of people inhabiting a particular place; in artistic terms, it is about sharing, cooperation, creative osmosis. Although she has exhibited in more than 200 museums and galleries on four continents, she has remained firmly committed to creating spaces that empower and inspire first-time printmakers and those who are mature in their craft. From her studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn (from which she was displaced due to the ravages of Hurricane Sandy) to her current studios here in Jacksonville and in rural Pennsylvania, Goloborotko’s efforts serve as a bridge between individual mastery and a brand of community activism that is deeply collaborative and steeped in the art of printmaking.

Just as she blurs the traditional lines between art forms, Goloborotko also moves fluidly between her roles as a master printmaker, curator, community partner, activist, academic, and educator. In addition to being the founder and director of Goloborotko’s Studios, she is the Associate Professor of Printmaking at the University of North Florida. As an educator, Goloborotko encourages her students to push the edges of the printmaking medium while empowering them to hone their voices and places in the larger world.

Goloborotko is currently engaged in exhibitions, workshops, presentations, and curatorial projects from California to New York and from her original home of Brazil to here at Yellow House. Today she makes her home in Northeast Florida with her partner Alma Largey, a retired dancer, choreographer, author, and Yogi who has recently opened Alma Yoga in Jacksonville Beach. Both women are having a positive impact on our region as creative practitioners, educators, and individuals deeply engaged with community.