‘ her treatment of the surface is laboriously worked, pushing the chalk with her hand into the surface in many layers developing a deep, bold, and modulated texture. Her concerns with design and color intermingle producing powerful works of elegance and simplicity…’
Tim Eaton/Eaton Fine Arts
Janet Gold follows the bold and elegant tradition of collage/assemblage in her award-winning small scale vintage book cover collages, which celebrate a soft, distinctive idiosyncratic approach to simple, intimate compositions. Taking a cue perhaps from Kurt Schwitters and Picasso, with a sprinkling of texture and polka dot patterns reminiscent of Robert Rauschenberg, Gold seems to know instinctively how to artfully lay down layers of vintage paper that celebrate and recall another time and place.
In her latest series, she has utilized old books as an initial working blueprint, that add character and a unique foundation for what’s to come. In fact, for centuries, books have been a traditional subject for artists as still life objects and as raw material to adaptively reuse in a completely different context. Not surprisingly, Gold takes advantage of this traditional, charming, delicate spirit found in used books, with often metaphorically correct innuendos that speak of secret poems, visual harmony, and story book endings.
.......Bruce Helander / nationally known collage artist, curator, author, and art critic.
6 Hands Collaborative
By:
Allegra Nagler
In the spirit of the Dadaists, who believed that the value of art lay not in the work produced, but in the act of making and collaborating to create new visions of the world, Ft. Lauderdale-based collage artist, Janet Gold seized on this concept and with two other award-winning women artists - Deborah Gregg and Andrea Huffman - created the 6 Hands Collaborative.
Like El Lissitzky Kurt Schwitters, Pablo Picasso and George Braque before them, they believe that six hands are better than one.
"After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, being cut up, re-arranged, and put back together again, I didn't have enough energy to return to teaching, so I created the 6 Hands Collaborative," says Gold.
She selected two other mixed media artists with similar sensibilities.
Gregg, who attended the renowned Art Students League in New York City, is a mixed media artist who creates sculptures, abstract paintings incorporating found objects and designs fine jewelry, while Huffman, a fiber artist, specializes in print making, fabric and digital imagery.
Created in 2014, the
group has already received
a ($2,000) CIP Grant
from Broward County to
teach workshops and their
first exhibit titled "The
Box Project," incorporating
the work of 25 professional
artists working on a
9 x 12 wooden box, was
exhibited in January
at Gallery 21 in Wilton
Manors.
...Click here to read more
Creating
Beauty One Collage
at a Time
By: Allegra
Nagler
In addition to being proud of her work, collage artist Janet Gold is proud of her studio in a non-descript strip mall in western Broward.
With her drive and connections, the studio is becoming an art enclave with several artist studios of painters, sculptors, and ceramicists.
She eagerly highlights her recent acquisitions: a 1960-era Smith Corona manual typewriter, a Singer sewing machine in working order, and a number of vintage doll heads precariously perched on top of a bookcase.
"I'm never at a loss as far as inspiration and creativity," says
Gold, who works alongside
her Gordon setter, Dylan,
an omnipresent cup of
Starbucks coffee and
Bob Marley or Nickleback
playing in the background.
Renowned artist, Bruce
Helander, of Helander
Studio in West Palm
Beach says, "Janet
Gold's charming new
series of sewn vintage
paper fragments act
as flat vertical totems,
which reveal mysterious
typed and written messages
tied together with
meandering thread."
"Her refined bird cages reveal an inventive spirit of adaptively re-used elements. With a respectful nod to Rauschenberg, who often employed sewn materials, Janet keeps the great tradition of collage and assemblage alive and well," Helander
says.
...Click here to read more
Best
Visual Artist - Janet
Gold
It's hard to keep track of Janet Gold, which is part of what makes her one of the most compelling presences on the South Florida art scene. One day, you may catch her at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where she has taught courses ranging from illustration to creative thinking. Another day, you might find her squeezing in a museum visit. Or hauling a friend off to discover a new gallery. Or taking in an art lecture. Or putting in an appearance at an opening, either for herself or in support of another artist friend. And yet she still finds time to spend in her studio on the fringes of downtown Fort Lauderdale, where she shares a space with fellow artist Tobey Archer and from time to time even takes on nonartist collaborators. There she has long engaged in her equally varied work, which includes pastel paintings, abstract photography, and, most recently, delicate collages.
..........Michael Mills New Times Magazine 2010
Best Art Event
Third Avenue Art District Artwalk, First Saturday in February
Venue
Third Avenue Art District
North of Broward Boulevard, along Andrews and NE 3rd avenues
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Like Santa Claus, the Third Avenue Art District Artwalk comes but once a year. And although there are no chimneys involved, there are gifts — if you consider it a gift to visit the studios of local artists and get wined and dined along the way. This year, the evening threw in a free visit to the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale to see two knockout exhibitions, a cool after-party at the Girls' Club Gallery, and trolley transportation to and from all of the above. The event has been going on since 1996 and has grown to include nine studios: those of Tobey Archer (mixed media), Madeline Denaro (painting),
Janet Gold (collage), Francie Bishop Good (photography), Tin Ly (metal sculpture), Margi Glavovic Nothard (architecture), Rosanna Saccoccio (printmaking and collage), Mary Lou Siefker (painting), and Wilma Bulkin Siegel (painting).
......New Times Magazine 2010
Take, for instance, nine mixed-media collages by Janet Gold. They function so well together that it's hard to imagine any one working in isolation — they work as an organic whole. I had been familiar with Gold mainly as the creator of small, serene canvases that are almost like miniature color-field paintings. Here, she reveals herself to be a habitué of the flea market and the thrift store as well, a collector of found objects that make their way into uncluttered, meticulously assembled collages with evocative titles such as The Influence of Influence, The Goddess of Graceful Curves, and Document of Modern Art. For several of the works, she has been drawn to book covers and spines, which she literally rips from their context and combines with other ingredients like parchment, vellum, cardboard, lace, tissue paper, suede, and found drawings. The results are starkly gorgeous.
..........Michael Mills New Times Review 2008
‘ her treatment of the surface is laboriously worked, pushing the chalk with her hand into the surface in many layers developing a deep, bold, and modulated texture. Her concerns with design and color intermingle producing powerful works of elegance and simplicity…’
Tim Eaton/Eaton Fine Arts
‘.. in her small concentrated oil pastels, Gold combines severity and sensuousness. There is a severity in the economy of the way she divides her surfaces, and there is sensuality in the richness of her color and density of her textures. Normally severity and sensuousness are perceived as incompatible attributes. Our ambition as artists is to connect the incongruities. To make enemies shake hands. We embrace paradox, which is the essence of the dramatic….’
Wolf Kahn
Gold’s works are a rare combination of beauty and contemplation. Her atmospheric compositions resonate with pure chromatic joy. The intimate scale and rich color palette allude to the preciousness of glowing jewels. Her paintings are little gems to be treasured and slowly savored by the viewer.
Jo Mett/Ameringer Yohi Fine Arts
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