Heskin Contemporary is pleased to present Jazmín Berakha’s exhibition “Vanishing Park” and Nicola Ginzel in the project room: two artists working in the tradition of embroidery. The exhibition opens May 26th and runs through July 2nd 2011. A reception will be held for the artists from 6 -9 pm on Thursday, May 26th.

Jazmín Berakha lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her work encompasses a wide range of media that includes traditional crafts, as well as music and film. In this exhibition, the artist works in needlepoint (a medium historically dominated by women, and not always by choice) as an entry to investigate modern images of modern women. Her work explores the possibilities of textiles in contemporary art. Her investigation and research into textiles, prints and patterns and fabric within fabrics, are an endless source of inspiration.

Ms. Berakha’s meditative sewing process embraces aspects of domesticity with a consciousness of place and time. Embroidery requires much concentration and patience, and in the artists words “there is no place to hurry”.

The subjects in these portraits, at times, have their faces covered, their bodies half-clothed, holding what resembles prayer beads, in a frozen moment of unexplained contemplation. Other imagery includes synchronized swimmers, a figure being held aloft by birds and various girls kneeling. All of the life in these works are either engaged by their focus or contained, held in place by the threads themselves. Through the use of this simple media, Ms. Berakha presents the complexity of life, and by extension, its beauty.

Nicola Ginzel is a mixed media artist in Brooklyn, New York, also working with embroidery, creating a different dialog. Ms. Ginzel’s work is based on the transformation of random ephemera gathered from the everyday. The artist collects mass-produced printed-paper products such as a hamburger wrapper, a shoe repair receipt and stamps. She then embroiders these massed-produced objects creating beautiful significant hand-made artworks. Through the process of covering the original meaning, the object then changes completely. The mundane, that served a particular function at one time or another, is given place and reverence, transcending its identity; in essence contrary to Pop Art.

The act of sewing by hand is intimate, meditative and nurturing. It slows down time and creates a quiet space. It is an act that is close and in every way opposite to the pace and demands of mainstream culture. Craftsmanship is a byproduct of the attention and concentration that the object receives.