At UPL, we believe that displaying art enhances the library experience for our patrons, staff, and volunteers. When we see art in our community spaces, we’re inspired to engage with it and make art of our own. We seek to exhibit the work of diverse voices that reflect the communities in which we live.

Currently Showing

Minna Resnick | The Past is Present

March 3 - April 26 2025

ARTIST STATEMENT

2024 marked the fiftieth year of an active studio practice for me. In five decades working in my studio, my concept has been reasonably consistent.

In the 1970s, my focus was on the personal and internal debate which occurs when women confront themselves and their role in present day society. It examined the dual nature of a woman's personality, the private and the public, and commented on themes of expectation and reality, the ideal and the everyday.

Over the decades, it evolved to include imagery incorporating information both inspired and provoked by text and images found in early and mid-twentieth century publications on themes such as home management and decoration, health, education, home repair, and fashion. Some visual language that was commonplace to a certain generation could not be understood several generations later. This allowed my work to examine the changing nature of experience over the course of time and aging. The appropriated pictorials and accompanying text summon up feelings of both nostalgia and horror at how far women’s roles have advanced and at how much they have remained stagnant.

Since a library serves as an information center for both current and historical knowledge, I thought this would be the perfect setting to view “my personal history” on these walls, and my continuous dialogue between past and present. Hope you enjoy the many decade-old images, which I still find relevant today.

BIOGRAPHY

Minna Resnick has lived in Ithaca, NY, since 1987, where she also maintains her studio. She shows both nationally and internationally and has work in over 65 public and private collections.

Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, NY; the Denver Art Museum, CO; the New York Public Library; the Newark Museum, NJ; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; and Kunsthaus Grenchen, Grenchen, Switzerland, among others. Resnick’s work is also represented in over 40 university and municipal collections.

In 1980, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and she received New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in 1991 and 1995. In 1999, she was awarded a Constance Saltonstall (NY) artist fellowship. In 2007 and 2009, she organized an international printmaking exhibition and related symposium in China. From 2016–2020, she was a visiting artist-in-residence for five weeks in both the Printmedia and Drawing Department at Australian National University, and at Megalo Print Studios, Canberra, Australia. Resnick’s latest visiting artist-in-residence was at University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill for three weeks in January 2023.

She has been represented by Galerie Tom Blaess, Bern, Switzerland for twenty years, where her latest solo show was held from November 2023–January 2024.

If you are interested in purchasing any work, please send her an email at minna@minnaresnick.com for information and pricing.

ARTIST RECEPTION

Please join us for a reception welcoming and celebrating Minna Resnick, Saturday March 22nd from 10:30 am - 1:30 pm. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome.