What do embroidery hoops, bed springs, and wooden massage rollers have in common? Very little until artist Flavia Gilmore gets her hands on them. Flavia creates sculptures ” known as assemblages ” from various odds and ends she gathers for her work.
The North County artist will be exhibiting her work at the Earl & Birdie Taylor Branch Library, 4275 Cass St., for a six-week show.
“[Gilmore is] not well known but she’s very highly respected in certain circles and in my opinion a very important artist,” said Mark-Elliot Lugo, curator at the Pacific Beach library.
The library’s Visual Arts Program seeks to recognize San Diego County’s older contemporary visual artists. Gilmore, a 75-year-old artist specializing in collage and assemblage art fits that description quite well.
Gilmore began her artistic career creating two-dimensional collage paintings. Her art eventually evolved into the three-dimensional counterpart of collage known as assemblage. The term “assemblage” refers to a type of sculpture that is created by arranging found objects like pieces of wood or metal or in Gilmore’s case, rusty bolts, pipes or wooden boxes, into one larger piece of art.
“I collect stuff. I go to thrift stores and salvage yards”¦ so I have these large bins in my studio, pieces of things I have taken apart so that I can reuse and transform the things into something else,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore’s exhibit entitled “Recent Works” will include over 30 works of collage and assemblage that she has made over the past five years, some of them sculptures small enough to sit on pedestals and others large floor sculptures standing several feet high.
“I think that is one of the strongest parts about [Gilmore’s] work is that it is thought provoking,” Lugo said. “It does challenge the viewer to a certain degree. Its some of the best work in assemblage that I have ever seen.”
The Pacific Beach Taylor Library will be hosting a series of events to present Flavia Gilmore and her art.
The exhibit runs from Monday, Feb 20 to April 2. The show’s reception is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. Flavia will return to the Earl & Birdie Taylor Library for a discussion of her work on March 11, 1 p.m.
In addition to these events, CityTV 24 will broadcast an interview with Gilmore as part of its “San Diego Profiles” series.
The library and gallery are open seven days a week. For more information call (858) 581-9934.