Gerwin, who grew up in Bowling Green, is an art professor at Queens University of Charlotte. He uses the on-campus studio and wood-burning kiln, which he built with his students, to create his ceramics.
Working with the theme of the Venus figure since undergrad, Gerwin’s take on the 30,000 year old fertility symbol oscillates between abstracted vessel and sculpted realism, endowing the clay with embodied qualities — skin folds, curves, heavy breasts and full thighs.
Coincidentally, work currently on view at The Contemporary Dayton by artist Xaviera Simmons centers around bronze figures inspired by those same prehistoric goddess figures.
A great education
Men have been admiring and depicting the nude female form in painting and sculpture since Greek antiquity.
Then came along, in 1975, the feminist theory of the “male gaze”, which originated in an essay by film theorist Laura Mulvey. She argued that mainstream movies present women from a masculine, heterosexual perspective, objectifying them as passive spectacles for male viewers’ pleasure.
The theory was also applied to art history, a famous example being Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) of 1863. The painting depicts a naked woman picnicking with two fully dressed men. She stares directly at the viewer, or perhaps, at the creator of the painting.
Gerwin is self-aware and clear in his conviction of rendering his sculptures respectfully and as symbols of female strength and empowerment. He recognizes himself as the “other” in the equation, expressing that he cares about women’s power and noting his gratitude for lessons learned in vulnerability.
“It’s been a great education on the waves of feminism,” said Gerwin from behind a potter’s wheel, where he was leading a demo during Rosewood’s Holiday Arts Festival.
“I have a lot of women’s voices in my head. Women over 60 love the work and see themselves in it,” he said.
“The third wave (of feminism) is pretty skeptical. It’s precarious for me in this decade — the 4th wave hates me.”
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Recent works in the series, like “Venus Goes Full Victory”, show clenched fists, a reflection of “the threat to women’s power”.
“They’ve taken on more defiant gestures since the Dobbs decision,” said Gerwin, referring to the 2022 Supreme Court case that reversed Roe v. Wade.
The largest forms, the result of 100 hours of clay “wet work”, preside over the gallery from their intentionally elevated status on pedestals. To move them, Gerwin literally throws the sculpture over his shoulder. They weigh in at around 150 pounds, lending an additional quality of realism.
In addition to the subject matter, Gerwin studies the chemistry and geology of his materials, considering where the minerals came from and their histories. Kaolin originates from the mountains of China, he said. Calcium crystals form during the cooling process, he explained, lending a glittering quality that seems to glow from beneath the surface.
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Gorgeous, luminous colors result from the chemical interactions during the intense heat of wood firing. “Figure Vessel 15”, in shades of high-key blues, are the result of a celadon glaze.
Just when I was analyzing the implications of these female bodies being literal empty vessels (technically, so they won’t explode in the kiln), I overheard a woman exclaim, “It’s so complimentary and real!”.
The gallery was full of enthusiastic viewers, grinning in admiration and appreciation, regardless of the gender of the creator.
Eden Quispe
Gallery Coordinator Laura Truitt created a “Slow Looking Challenge” to encourage visitor engagement in the exhibition. A pamphlet invites the viewer to spend 5 minutes with Eden Quispe’s artwork, “Day Mama Night Mama” before opening the trifold to learn more.
The challenge came about after a Rosewood book club read “Your Brain on Art” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Truitt said that the common sentiment among readers was a desire to look closely at more art, with the effect of encouraging curiosity and lowering anxiety.
Quispe is a textile artist and art teacher based in Newton, Kansas. She explores the tension of traditional and contemporary values in modern day culture through the experience of motherhood. Herself a mother of four, she creates interior scenes using inherited quilting techniques, embroidery, printing, and collage with found textiles.
Originally a painter, she shifted to fabric during the Covid pandemic.
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Credit: Hannah Kasper
“(The work) is a little chaotic and so is my life,” said Quispe, noting her technique of letting pieces grow organically and allowing her children to add their own marks.
The embroidered and painted tapestries are in good company in our region. Dayton contemporary artists including Mychaelyn Michalec, Bridgette Bogle, and Heather Jones play with the relationship between painting and fiber, and the creative legacy of women’s textile art combined with domestic status in society.
“These women did not have the option to work outside of the home or be acknowledged as academic artists,” said Quispe of this textiles legacy.
The works appear as loving tribute to both the seen and invisible labors of the mother. Textile is “in the family”, said the artist, and there is a collaborative, inter-generational sense of material.
Quispe incorporates her daughter’s baby clothes, her grandfather’s ties, inherited fabrics from her family, and textiles from her husband’s Peruvian culture. These “object memories” are combined and printed on to create quilt collages featuring painted, interacting figures.
They also reference Peruvian retablos and Christian iconography, including the stories of Ruth and Moses.
Both artists create work that worships the feminine divine energy found in history, ancestry, and contemporary times, calling out power struggles both quietly and out loud.
MORE DETAILS
What: Eden Quispe, Stitched Stories; and Denny Gerwin, Figurative Work
When: Through Jan. 3, 2026. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday
Cost: Free
Where: Kettering Health Art Gallery at Rosewood Arts Center, 2655 Olson Drive, Kettering
Online: playkettering.org/gallery
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