Confrontation

June 10, 2017 - August 6, 2017
Mary Blanton Kennedy Gallery
Museum of the Southwest

Part of 2017 Contemporary Series: 
Science in the Southwest

Text by Ronna Nemitz

When I was first introduced to Strohacker’s work it consisted of silhouetted animal forms. Two birds walking shoulder to shoulder, then one behind the other until, finally, one leaves in flight and one is left to ponder the other’s exit. This early work is deceptively simple yet lays out the groundwork for further investigation.

She examines the history of animal and human occupancy of place. The research imperative of neutrality tempers her need to offer more than observation. The process and content of her work spans intellectual inquiry and heart-felt action and honors that which is disappearing from our world. She acts as witness of the passage of these once commonplace creatures. The focus of her work is not recovery so much as it is loss.

She translates images of animals into symbols of larger sentiment. She doesn’t deny her subjects idealization. Pure and perfect forms are projected on man-made landscapes of buildings, automobiles and fences. She forces the eye and mind to contemplate what it usually refuses to consider – the reality that the animal condition is our own condition. As in her early work we are left to ponder a species exit.