Bannister Gallery’s newest exhibition works with the “Material and Immaterial”

Kelcy Conroy

Managing Editor

Many talented artists in the New England area have called RIC’s Bannister Gallery home. The gallery’s newest collection: Elena Peteva’s “Material and Immaterial.” In this exhibition Peteva uses paper and charcoal as symbols for creation, existence, death and rebirth.

“Subject and material become [metaphors] — whether a box with black smoke coming out of it or a large mound of charcoal,” Peteva writes. In her work, charcoal is representative of ash: what is left at the end of everything but also what is needed to create new life. 

Photo from Bannister Gallery Instagram

Peteva, an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth was mentored in the world of representational and realist image making. Her exhibition contains realism shown through various drawings. In her self portraits she shows not a likeness of herself rather her goal is to show moments in her life that pass by throughout the different portraits.

“Peteva’s self-portraits record a moment of her life. The moment is fleeting, but the mood is on-going and eternal,” Richard Whitten, a Professor of Art at RIC writes.

Aside from her self portraits, Peteva also included a series of drawings of smoke coming out of boxes. These drawings are meant to depict the moment of change, the last moments of one’s existence as well as a transition between time as shown in the self portraits. 

A notable part of the exhibition is an installation of piled pieces of charcoal that Peteva has included titled “Ash. For Dad.” In the discussion that charcoal is a symbol for both the end of life and new beginnings the charcoal could also represent that its dead material can spark the birth of new drawings.

“Material and Immaterial” will have its opening reception on Feb. 26 from 4-7 p.m. in the Bannister Gallery located in Roberts Hall. This reception will include an artist talk by Peteva at 5 p.m. This exhibition opened on Feb. 19 and is open to the public, the Bannister Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 12-8 p.m.