MARIA CRISTINA JADICK | INTO RESILIENCE
Artist Reception Saturday, April 2nd, 6P to 8P
Join us, this Saturday, April 30, 2:00P.M., at G Contemporary Gallery for a discussion around Cristy Jadicks exhibition,”Into Resilience.”
Karen Farber, Vice President of External Affairs at the Buffalo Bayou Partnership will speak on “Bayou resilience after disaster,” and “What citizens can do to help our bayous maintain resiliency going forward.”
Psychologist, LCSW, MPH will speak on “How to overcome trauma” and practical ways to become more resilient.
Each speaker will talk for 20 minutes and then we will open up for questions. There will be refreshments.
Compelled to build bridges, Jadick affirms her purpose to evoke compassion while creating a space for dialogue. Throughout a decades long career, her research based, conceptual art has addressed contemporary issues by integrating photography, video/audio, found-objects, foodstuffs, painting, printmaking, performance and installation. She presents an authentic rather than a traditional, beauty aesthetic. With this solo exhibition, Jadick proffers expressive works which explore the Hurricane Harvey flooding event that devastated Houston neighborhoods and the Gulf Coast area in September of 2017.
Hurricane Harvey, an extreme weather event of biblical proportions poured over a trillion gallons of water on Houston, causing unprecedented, destructive flooding. Buffalo Bayou, a main waterway in Houston, was the center for much of Harvey’s flooding, and is featured during Harvey’s aftermath in Jadick’s paintings.
A few weeks after Hurricane Harvey’s flooding, Jadick, armed with her camera, visited Buffalo Bayou banks and local neighborhoods to survey the damage and document as a witness the storm’s staggering effects. She collected found branches and limbs that had been torn from trees by the battering floodwaters, as testament to the waters violent ferocity. Later those pieces of wood became important testimonial elements as they were attached to her paintings.
While driving on her way to help a friend whose home had been flooded, Jadick observed with shock and dismay, how along curbsides, there were high piles of discarded contents of flooded homes, house after house, street after street. The piles, stacked half as high as the homes themselves, contained drenched and stained mattresses, furniture, clothing, bedding, books, toys, drywall, and pink insulation, remnants of lived life. She was overtaken with feelings of compassion and sorrow for the families who had lost so much, but later, instead of seeing trauma, Jadick recognized the awesome beauty of brave renewal, and of remarkable overcoming. It is this new gaze that Jadick conveys with her work that may help us see differently.
Hurricane Harvey although a harbinger of extreme climate change related events to come, elicited an heroic resilience and adaptability in many of those who in the midst of terrible loss, discovered their indomitable human spirit, a spirit which helped unite entire communities in recovery, rebuilding and adaptability; all with the goal of a sustainable and resilient future. With a sense of urgency, this is the human spirit we need to cultivate, and rely on, so we can make the changes necessary for better preparedness as we move forward and face whatever is coming.
Artist Bio
Jadick’s conceptual artwork has exposed social inequities and tragic historical events for over twenty years, from American soldier’s sacrifices, to immigration, displacement, economic disparities and climate change. Working in printmaking, painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video while also incorporating natural materials such as reclaimed wood, earth, found objects or foodstuffs, Jadick has fused research, current events, and human narratives into provocative works that evoke the social and political concerns of today. She has exhibited at the Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, the Fotofest Biennial, the Bronx Biennial, Diverse Works, and nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, alternative, public and corporate spaces.
Jadick is the recipient of several Creative Capital/ Diverse Works development grants and served on the Artist Board at Diverse Works, Houston, TX (2013-2014.) Jadick holds a Liberal Arts B.A. in Political Science and Spanish Literature from Gettysburg College. She completed studies in Social Sciences and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. and Art studies in Printmaking, Sculpture, Painting, Ceramics, Drawing, and Art History at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, Museum of Fine Arts Houston- The Glassell School, and the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain. She lives and works in Houston, TX with her husband, two dogs and two sons.
