Intersection of Color
Domenica Brockman
Conny Goelz Schmitt

April 22 to June 3, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday April 22, 3 to 5pm

Intersection of Color features paintings by Domenica Brockman and sculptures and collages by Conny Goelz Schmitt. Geometry, with attention to balance and dimensionality, guides the eye through meditative and joyful arrangements of color and form.

Artist Statements

Domenica Brockman
I draw inspiration from the natural world: shafts of sunlight, rainbows, kaleidoscopes, light refractions and reflections. I look at the effects of light on clouds in sunsets and the little rainbows that appear in gasoline spills on asphalt, or in soap bubbles. I am also attracted to the logic of geometry. Through the informal study of geometry, I aim to find that certain balance and "rightness" that can be found in nature. Created to lift spirits and brighten the day during challenging times, my hope is that these works bring feelings of joy and hope.

Conny Goelz Schmitt

Through geometric collages and sculptures built from vintage book parts I tell stories utilizing every part of the book except text. I play with deconstruction, reconstruction and changing dimensionality, treating the book as a time machine transporting me back to the past and into the future. Having been immersed in three very different cultures, elements of each of them are present in my projects. I am influenced by the German attention to detail, the retro color palette of Taiwan in the 1980’s and the experimental, pioneering spirit of America. Although my work may seem planned and calculated, it evolves organically within a rule-based system. This process conveys a world of adventure and surprise, providing the freedom to explore. A pursuit for balance and harmony becomes a meditation and ritual.

Artist Bios

Domenica Brockman

Domenica Brockman is an abstract painter whose work explores geometry, color, and surface. Her preferred medium is encaustic paint (pigmented wax and resin) on wood panels, often working with the shape of the square, using it alone and in grids, and utilizing a restricted palette and varied textures. In her paintings and her collage work, the surface is painted and then broken apart and reassembled to create compositions that feel as if they have come about by chance, but are in fact the product of long deliberation.

Born in the U.S. and raised in various African countries, Domenica’s work is influenced by her passion for hand woven textiles from around the world, particularly Kuba grass cloth weavings from the Congo, mud cloth from Mali, and Phulkari embroidered tapestries from India. The breaks in pattern that come about by happenstance in the making of a repetitive design, the places where there is evidence of a human hand, not a machine, is what inspires her the most. In this spirit, she fuses a traditional handmade sensibility with contemporary aesthetics rooted in minimalism and non-objective imagery.

Domenica has a BFA from Cornell University, and a Post Baccalaureate degree from the School of Visual Arts. When she is not in her studio painting, she runs “Petrune Vintage”, a clothing store that she owns with her husband, and “The Petrune Gallery”, an art exhibition space in Ithaca, NY. She is co-founder of the Cayuga Arts Collective, a nonprofit organization for artists in the Finger Lakes Region.

Conny Goelz Schmitt

Conny Goelz Schmitt is a collage artist and sculptor who spent her youth in Germany, moved to Taiwan in her twenties, and relocated to the US in 1996. Having been immersed in three very different cultures, she is drawn to hard edge painting influenced by the German “attention to detail”, the retro color palette reminiscent of Taiwan in the 80s, and the very often experimental and creative pioneering spirit of Americans. Her medium of choice is almost without exception the vintage book.

In Germany she studied Sinology and German Literature at Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen. She was named Sculptor of the Year by Chief Curator of Boston University, Kate McNamara in CAA’s 69th Members’ Prize Show. In 2016, Paul C. Ha, Director of the List Visual Art Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, selected her work for the Best Multi Media Prize in CAA’s National Prize Show. She was awarded a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center for 2022 and a residency in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland.

Besides exhibiting at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY, Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, her work has been featured at Galerie Biesenbach, Cologne (Germany), the Cultural Association of Rosa Venerini, Viterbo (Italy), The Painting Center, New York, Site: Brooklyn, New York, The Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA, among others.

Conny has a studio in Beverly, Massachusetts.