From the Curator:
Dear Viewer,
It’s hard to think of a more important time to release a show honoring inner strength than in the midst of a major pandemic. Our list of people exercising incredible bravery on a daily basis is longer than you could imagine, and we are thankful for all of them. The Vacant Museum would like to dedicate this exhibition to everyone and anyone risking their health and safety to help others and to help the world. No matter how small or silent your act of strength, the Vacant Museum will forever appreciate and remember your contribution.
We may be fearfully staying put in our homes each day, cut off from face-to-face interaction for the sake of the greater good, but at least we are able to hear more inspiring acts of selfless courage echoing around the planet than possibly ever before. While the sounds of strength are sometimes loud enough to circle the globe, other times they are quieter than a whisper. Sometimes strength is so silent we can’t even hear it inside ourselves.
Silent Strength is a soundless exhibition, you won’t be able to hear these portrait subjects speak, but look closely and you’ll be able to see, or perhaps even feel, the power they each hold within. We hope this exhibition brings you virtually face-to-face with people you would never expect to meet, or find inspiration in. We hope that understanding how easy it is to recognize silent strength once you’re actually looking for it, will help us all remember that the loudest voices often fade the fastest, while the softer stay steady.
Stay steady and stay strong, we all need each other to make it through this. Enjoy the show!
– S
Etienne Garceau
Canada
Contemporary Hyperheroes
Digital painting.
1. 2 x 3
2. 4 x 5
Instagram: @etiennegarceau,
artstation.com/etiennegarceau
They may not get the glory, but across the world healthcare workers have been risking their health and welfare to keep the rest of us going. They have an impossible job, but just as impossible would be getting them to tell you that herself. They prefer framing impossibilities as problems, and tackling problems, including seemingly insurmountable ones, is a good part of what makes them tick. Doctors and nurses are looking straight in the eyes of death and fighting back with their silent powers, resilience, empathy, etc. They are our true heroes, our Contemporary Hyperheroes.
Abby Aceves
Los Angeles
Comandante Ramona
Acrylic on Panel
11 x 14 inches
http://www.abbyaceves.com, @abby_aceves
Comandante Ramona was a tzotzil indigenous woman and commandant of the National Liberation Zapatista Army (EZLN) in Chiapas, México. She promoted the human rights for women, writing along with other women of diverse communities of the state of Chiapas the “Revolutionary Law for Women”. “I want all woman to wake up and spread in their hearts the need to organize, because with crossed hands we cannot build a free and fair Mexico that we all desire”
Claire Alexandre
Glasgow
In the Remaking
Acrylic and paper on canvas. 67x97cm
https://clairity.squarespace.com/art @onlyclairity
This self-portrait is a time growth of the mental journey to find strength amidst the repeated gender violences I experience as woman on this planet. Theses violences led to an internal collapse in early March that was intimately paralleled by the imminent collapse of the rest of the world. This felt strangely validating but only through a lens of destruction and chaos devoid of repair or recognition. I am on the path to understanding my pain and through my own remaking also assist in the reimagining of the world during and post COVID19. My background is an assembly of various floor plans layered with mazes symbolizing the complexity of this mental journey. The floor plan also speaks to my physical state, confined in rooms that I learn to re-know everyday for a period of time that is still undetermined. The plants included are St Johns Wort, Nettle, Mulungu, Marshmellow and Borage. They honor the methodology of the self-defense educator Irene Zeilinger that has helped me understand the four pillars of self defense which are mental, verbal, emotional and physical.
Faith Humphrey Hill
Chicago, IL
3d+Knit & Knit Print Portraits
3d Printed plastic over wool knitting Digital drawing collaged over knitting
http://www.dartily.com
IG: @dartily_faith
All other SM: @dartily
Knit Prints celebrate our common thread. Combining the visual symbolism of knitting with the expressive color and rendering of digital drawing. They create a comfort and familiarity between viewer and subject though they may be strangers. 3D+Knit is a new body of work that combines the physical knitting beneath a 3D print of the drawing. These bold works emphasize the high contrast between the soft knitting and the shiny dark plastic.
Jen Webster
Jurupa Valley, CA
Crown of Darkness
Charcoal and Graphite
11 x 14
IG: @beatriceweb_art
Patreon: Beatricewebart
This piece was created during a time of finding inner strength, healing and understanding myself. I was born in a sense in motherhood and revisited unhealed wounds.
The venom and poison of my mind and surroundings are no longer harmful to me and are now healing properties of boundaries and armor. This is a self portrait of myself, Jennifer Ashley Beatrice Webster.
Renata Cogui
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Hiperlink 01
Oil on Canvas and cotton string
2019
35 x 27 in
The Hyperlinks series brings to light the subtlety of connections, tensions and instabilities inherent to human existence and its transience.
Lindsay Nonhof-Fisher
Madison Wisconsin USA
No One is an Island
6 in x 9 in
watercolor on paper
https://www.instagram.com/rotationcreations
Being human means having the perception that we are perpetually alone. When our consciousness is boiled down, all we truly ever have is ourselves. Yet we are all a part of the same whole, belonging to one another like drops in an ocean. This is the great paradox of being alone with others.
Matilda Forsberg
Maplewood, NJ
Observing Rituals
http://www.matildaforsberg.com
My work is inspired by the complexities of family and cultural tradition, and its emotional and psychological influence on individuals as independent beings. The narratives I am working through are rooted in both my biological Swedish background and my daughter’s Chinese heritage, with imagery frequently sourced from family photo archives. In my process, when looking closely at these captured moments from the past and responding to this with paint, something new often emerges, suggesting there might be more to the narrative than perceived at first. The figures in my paintings tend to exist in the context of the group and situations, their individuality blurred and mutable, but not erased, allowing me to explore certain family dynamics and a sense of existing in the moment. The landscape or environment — dream-like spaces inspired by the Nordic landscape —often becomes one motion with the figures while light, or the push and pull between darkness and lightness, acts as a narrator.
Caitlyn Doran
Kanazawa
Youko Presenting the Atelier
Acrylics, oils, and colored pencil on 11×17 in. canvas
https://www.instagram.com/caitlyncold/
Viewing cinema is an opportunity to examine the impossible. Similarly, my work operates much like stills from imaginary films; of which the specific models and props are taken from my real experiences. Bandaged siblings, hungry roommates, electric tea kettles, cascading grains of rice, or tiny animal figurines suspended from twine, these sort of icons of domesticity make up my world. Together they tell seemingly ordinary stories of subtle fantasy and amiable cross-cultural exchange directly inspired by my daily life. More specifically, my submission to Vacant Museum’s Silent Strength exhibition is a portrait I made last summer of my dear friend Youko. Despite her small stature and often shy nature, in the face of adversary her resolve is nothing short of astonishing. Within this painting she’s supporting a miniature me and enduring one of her oh-so-frequent nosebleeds. A skewed version of our reality and a testament to her strength of character in my eyes.
Gabriel Porto Loew
Porto Alegre, Brazil
Cais
Acrylic on Canvas
https://www.instagram.com/gabrielloew
This silent and invisible force seems to me to be a line of common interest in my works and in the portraits I choose, something that dazzles me and generates a desire to dazzle. Perhaps the words that most elucidate the choice of themes are: Oneness and Mystery, typical of every human being. There is something surprising about experiencing human individuality, which is not completely comprehensible and therefore something mysterious. I especially chose these three portraits as a reference for my paintings because they carry this invisible force.
Jaina Cipriano
Lexington, MA
Finding Bright
Digital Photography
This work centers around coming to terms the visceral loss of childhood dreams. The sets I am building now are bright, theatrical and dramatic. I mix moments of childhood freedom with the sharp edges of an independence you are not prepared for. I am making a drama out of ordinary moments. These are visual metaphors for the crushing lows of abandonment and the joyous heights of a potential salvation. Love and loss, lost and found.
Donatella Marcatajo
Italy
Seeing The Redness Flower From My Wrists
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 50 x 80 cm
This is a singular part of my ongoing project that illustrates passages from Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”, going through my personal journey about depression and feelings of overwhelm. I think this painting could fit your call because I think there are always silent forces inside us, like voices that whisper in our minds, sometimes they speak of bad feelings, other times they stimulate our dreams and hopes. And this painting for me illustrates one of the people who embodied those ambiguous forces, she’d an internal power that was able to create or destroy things, even herself.
Jeet Sengupta
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nocturnal Livelihood
Photography
Website- https://jeetsengupta.wordpress.com/ , Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/jeetsengupta_/
This work is about the chowkidars of Kolkata who are hired privately or by police stations to secure respective locality from all kinds of threat at night. In spite of the increasing street lights, many areas still remain ill-lit and silent at late hours which often puts them at the scene of robberies,drunken and other antisocial offences even suicides and murders. In the morning many of them earn alternate livelihood by washing cars, selling dairy products, laboring in construction sites and several other odd jobs to support their families financially.
But with the advent of security agencies, CCTV cameras and other advanced security systems, the chowkidar is increasingly being seen as dispensable. They are being replaced by security guards in uniform. With all these difficulties a few of them still keeps working at night mostly around old residential buildings in Kolkata only for a meager wage.
I believe this disappearing community should be remembered for their years of hard work. These images were made during my nightly walks across the city.
Stéphane Vereecken
Brussels
the Garden series
photography / 42 x 32 cm
https://vereeckenstef.wixsite.com/stephanevereecken , @stephanevereecken
Through my works i explore the relationship between human beings and his animal side with the Garden series. A universe of reality and also of surrealism. The drawings on bodies and walls show us a future project of a sublimated and possible life. All these different personalities form a united and united entity
Maíra Barillo
Brazil
Sereia
Digital Photograph
Strength is about surviving and creating even when threatened by most beings around you. This portrait is about the silent strength of the ones that survive all the attacks they suffer and keep creating and finding new ways to reaffirm their existence and power. Organza (a.k.a. Vinicius) is a visual artist, actor and drag queen that created this outfit in honor and as reference to the water and its powers. The photograph is a collaboration between Organza (@organzza) and the photographer, was taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is a part of a series, yet to be released concerning monstrous expression of the self.
Yashika Sugandh
Noida, India
Song of The Goddess
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
48 inches x 36 inches
https://www.instagram.com/yashika_artsnack/
Yashika Sugandh born in Kolkata, India is an artist who prefers to work in oil and acrylic mediums. Her works describes the contradictions in Indian society, the duality of life and living, isolation and belonging, of accord and discord with strong symbols. It is very important to her as an artist to react pragmatically to this societal struggle that surround her. Her works describes the sensitivity towards the social resistance along with reflections from her past. The current body of work is an assertive reaction to a staunch patriarchal vision. Every painting to her is like an armor to aid, to protect from injuries, to heal the wound made by life, and by the past done to self. Her images are a byproduct of her thoughts and emotions, her observations, beliefs, values and vast compilation of past experiences. Painting to her is like an aid to heal those injuries and nourishes the spirit to fight. It helps to hold on to her experiences and being alert.
Ulrika Muller
Sweden
Silent Strength
Acrylic on canvas
https://www.facebook.com/ulrika.mullerart.9 , @ulrikamuller
The large green portraits are of a fictive kind, describing my inner peace and strength and also portrays a kind of visual admiration to my then newfound partner, soon to be my husband -that I did not know at the date of painting those two works though -now celebrating 21 years of marriage this May coming…
The other two portraits are the best product of that relationship -two beautiful children both carrying the strength and willpower of youth.
Painting portraits is something relatively new to me but something I discovered I love doing and am now looking to explore more of in my future career, being a visual artist…
Jeet Sengupta
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Pride Walk
Photography
Website- https://jeetsengupta.wordpress.com/ , Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/jeetsengupta_/
These portraits were made during the 16th Kolkata Pride Walk where hundreds took part to celebrate queer identities and expressions. Many of them painted their faces and carried placards demanding the centre to amend the transgender bill or scrap it and draft a new one. They marched down the streets shouting slogans of freedom from patriarchal belief, caste , capitalism and heteronormativity. This community which has to bare hardships in their daily life and yet remains silent, expressed their angst against the society and celebrated freedom through this movement. I felt this gesture was very strong in changing the biased opinion of the society.
On 6th September 2018, the Supreme Court of India decriminalized homosexuality by declaring section 377 of the Indian penal code unconstitutional.
Erik
Denmark
Portrait Of Her Garden Spirit
Acrylic on canvas. 15×15 cm.
I work with the personal and unique language of movement, it is a strong teller of identity and very unique to each individual. This is Jane.
Minnie McNaughton
Cornwall, UK
Cath
Acrylic on board,
10”x12” (3.5×25.5cm)
This painting of my colleague Cath was made just prior to lockdown. We worked together for many years in the Art Department at Newquay Tretherras Academy and she was a constant source of supportive strength, sometimes silent more often wickedly noisy! In this portrait I have tried to capture her steady, confident gaze.
Lillie Wren
Arkansas
01/23/2017
Coffee stained newspaper and wood
11″ x 15″
lillavenderdesigns.com , @lillavenderdesigns
This is a portrait of my father. He passed away unexpectedly in January of my senior year of high school. My dad was an incredible man who definitely had silent powers. His humility kept his powers silent, but the impact he made on this world in only 56 short years was anything but silent. He had a servant’s heart and never met a stranger. Our family faced many trials while I was growing up, but he stood firm in his faith and was steadfast through it all. I never had to question my worth in his eyes or how much he loved me because he showed me every. single. day. While he is not here during this difficult time, I can only pray that his legacy lives on through me.
JL Maxcy
London UK
Earthly Madonnas
Acrylic on Canvas
http://www.jlmaxcy.com , @jlmaxcyart
Earthly Madonnas is a series of portraits illustrating the strength and virtue of those women that choose to use their inherent maternal instincts to protect the Earth and its resources.
Sabrina Wildbacher
Linz, Austria
I miss you and you know it
Sister, 2020
Oil on paper
50 x 40
Mother, 2020
Oil on paper, silk thread, rubber
60 x 50 cm
Influenced by the current COVID situation, I´d like to show you portraits of my sister and my mother that I painted this last month. Both their absence and presence seem to have a rather heavy impact on me at the moment.
With my sister I associate a rather melancholic and vacant feeling, since she is not allowed to visit her home due to the lockdown in Austria.
Most of my time in self-isolation I spend with my mother at my familiy’s house. I often detect that she is absent-minded and probably worried about the future and how she tries to distract herself by looking at magazines or television. To emphasize her presence, I applied materials like silk thread around the brochure and elements of rubber gloves on her hands.
Romain Le Badezet
Nantes, FR
Media People
https://www.romainlebadezet.com/ , @romainlebadezet
This is a selection of four drawings and collages on paper made out pictures from newspapers. To make those portrayals, I choose anonymous characters from advertising pictures and characters taken from the background of magazines pages. I tried to show those plain subjects in a poetic way, to give back mystery to them using pencils, paint and paper. I tried to create light compositions were everything can not be understood. In opposition to the informative, the politic and the business aspects specific to the initials pictures taken from the mass media papers, I built abstract areas to make the subjects human again