At the heart of Magda Gluszek’s haunting artwork is the desire to reveal society’s self-imposed glorification and remind people, “we are just animals playing dress-up,” she said.
“Our preoccupation with self-presentation and display is a visual example of one of the many ways we embrace artificiality has always interested me,” Gluszek said. “Despite this façade, our emotional actions are tied to basic animalistic impulses. Society and culture tend to ignore or deny the presence of those primal urges.”
Gluszek, a former adjunct instructor at Gulf Coast State College, is part of “Crossing Boundaries,” an exhibit currently on display in the Amelia Center Main Gallery of GCSC. The exhibit combines American artists’ prints, drawings and sculptures inspired by a group-trip to Skopelos, Greece, and will be on display until Thursday.
Among the other works inspired by the small, Aegean Sea island, Gluszek blends animal features and mannerisms in her work with those of humans to create eerie and dark hybrid forms, frozen in provocative poses. The resulting work reveals what Gluszek said is an illustration of the psychological state of a society repressing those ancestral animal roots in favor of materialism.
“I’m not in favor of going back to before all of this,” Gluszek said. “It’s just something we all do and don’t think about, but beneath the fake eyelashes, wigs and sparkles we are just animals playing dress-up.”
Incidentally, one of the more eerie components in Gluszek’s work is the life-like human soul captured in the eyes. The effect is sometimes achieved with taxidermy eyes or a number of other mediums, according to GCSC Associate Professor of Art Tammy Marinuzzi.
Combining clay with several different mediums — including wire, metals, fabrics and resin — to achieve dynamic textures, like those present in Gluszek’s work, has only prevalently emerged in sculpting within the past couple of decades, Marinuzzi said.
“For about 15 years, artists have been using several materials along with clay to get what they want,” she said. “And (Gluszek) just dives into it with a mastery of all these materials until she gets the exact outcome she wants.”
Marinuzzi and has been organizing student trips to greater Greece areas to experience the birthplace of artistic mastery. While Gluszek’s work will move on Thursday with the traveling exhibit, Marinuzzi said people interested in weighty-messaged artworks should keep an eye out for upcoming displays in GCSC.
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