The Carnegie Center is pleased to present the exhibit ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors, on display March 11 through April 29, 2011. ENID is a collective of female sculptors with 16 members, based in Louisville, KY. They derive their name from Enid Yandell (1869-1924), the first recognized female sculptor in Kentucky. Yandell studied in Paris with Auguste Rodin and Frederich MacMonnies. Yandell was only the second female member of the National Sculpture Society, into which she was inducted in New York in 1899.
As of 2011, 10 of the original members remain, as well as 6 additional members whose passion for sculpture drew them to the collective. The current membership includes: Gayle Cerlan, Caren Cunningham, Jeanne Dueber, Ewing Fahey, Sarah Frederick, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Mary Dennis Kannapell, Elizabeth Kirkwood, Frances Kratzok, Shawn Marshall, Suzanne Mitchell, Joyce Ogden, Jacque Parsley, Cynthia Reynolds, Gloria Wachtel (work not included in this exhibit) and Melinda Walters. At 88 years old, artist Ewing Fahey is one of the founding members of ENID. About her pieces in ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors, Fahey writes, “Recent travels and fortuitous access to a sink hole full of cow bones bleached white with age sparked the ideas for these faux pre-historic ‘relics.’ Dry bones weigh so much less than the Indiana limestone I carved for years that getting rid of the weight factor was enough to turn this stone carver giddy.”
The mission of ENID has evolved over the years but it is still vitally important: “The mission of ENID, Generations of Women Sculptors is to encourage, educate, and mentor women artists, students and each other, as well as to promote the careers of our members. To do this we encourage local women sculptors to reach their potential by providing a spirit of support and cooperation and by sharing professional and technical knowledge. We hope to enrich the community through lectures, discussion groups, workshops, exhibitions, engagement with issues of art and society, and by setting examples of hard work and dedication.”
The exhibition at the Carnegie Center will highlight the diversity of artworks by these artists who work in media ranging from wood and ceramics to found objects and video. It is co-curated by Karen Gillenwater, Carnegie Center curator, and Leticia Bajuyo. Bajuyo is an Associate Professor of Art at Hanover College, and as an artist her approach to technique has a do-it-yourself, problem-solving attitude that is guided by concept and yields combinations such as 6,000 donated CD’s and salvaged doors or Styrofoam peanuts and Happy Meals.