TWEEN: Works by Mara Baldwin

Mara Baldwin’s new body of work in TWEEN explores emotional, metaphorical, and tangible forms of middleness.  Straddling disciplines of drawing and sculpture, her hand-made works resemble familiar objects but defy notions of their original usefulness – keys cut from paper, interrupted patterns, high school varsity letters slipping out of their uniformity.  Staging interventions on found and used objects, Baldwin’s work explores the spectral possibilities of an object being untethered from intended function and particular narrative.

TWEEN opens on Wednesday, April 3rd and will hang in the Gallery until Sunday April 28th. Stop by to meet the artist on Sunday, April 14th from 3-5pm. Refreshments will be served!

Originally an Ithaca native, Mara Baldwin returned to the area in 2011 after a 10-year trans-national sabbatical during which she received her BA from Wesleyan University in art history and her MFA from the California College of Arts in drawing and textiles. During her travels she worked as an arts educator for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Portland Art Museum (Oregon), the Boys and Girls Club of America, and most recently as an after school and substitute teacher in San Francisco.  In 2011 she was invited back to Ithaca as an Artist-in-Residence with the Saltonstall Foundation after which she was hired as the Assistant Director at Ithaca College’s Handwerker Gallery. She has since received a new title as Acting Director of the gallery and continues to expand her studio practice locally. Her work is primarily focused on drawing and textiles with occasional dips into sculpture, installation, and collage.