S W A N S Q U A R T E R
AN EXPLORATION OF LIGHT
AND WAYFINDING
M. Fortuna
Johnson & Johnson
World Headquarters Art Gallery
New Brunswick, NJ.
January - March, 2018.
About M. Fortuna
M. Fortuna was raised on the Lynnhaven River in Virginia, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The ocean was always in the air.
She explored the river and its tidal margins and swamps alone… on foot, and in boats.
She comes to the making of art from an unusual place. Trained as a biologist, she has worked in laboratories at Yale and Chapel Hill. She was a summer intern at Valley Forge Army Hospital in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. She has moved into the world of the naturalist observer as well as the maker of things. She works the improbable boundaries between physical matter and spoken language, keen to handle materials from paint to earth to found metal and smithereens (smashed automobile safety glass).
***
Karen Parker Lears is an artist who works under the name M. Fortuna. She is an Associate Editor of
Raritan: A Quarterly Review .
I invite you to
SWANSQUARTER,
boathouse and refuge,
for a brief excursion into light
and wayfinding.
- M. Fortuna
Interior Life of Stones
I hope you will allow yourselves a sense of disorientation.
That is where we can begin to find meaning
in these idiosyncratic works that attempt to capture light,
reflect light, reflect on light and loss and navigation,
imagine buoyancy, and celebrate color.
- M. Fortuna
My studio is something of a lab/shop/pharmacy/field station/library.
I think of it as a boathouse.
ABOUT JOHNSON & JOHNSON'S
CORPORATE ART PROGRAM
As part of its community outreach in New Jersey,
Johnson & Johnson is committed to social, environmental and cultural programs that improve the livability of communities. Each year, the Corporate Art Program sponsors thirteen exhibitions in two galleries, the World Headquarters Gallery and the New Jersey Artists Gallery. The World Headquarters Gallery highlights art related to issues of science, healthcare, local history and consumer culture. The New Jersey Artists Gallery features the work of living New Jersey artists.
The Johnson & Johnson Galleries are located at 1 Johnson & Johnson Plaza, New Brunswick. The gallery is open to the public- Monday-Friday- by appointment only.
To schedule a visit, contact the Corporate Art Program by phone 732-524-6957; email at corporateartprogram@corus.jnj.com.