June 11–18, 1998

six pick

All the Symptoms of an Artist

		Ahren's with Used and Worn (soap and sardine cans)

This Wednesday the Esther Klein Gallery and Organization for Artists Trained in Healthcare (OATH) open All the Symptoms of an Artist: Working from Medicine, a traveling exhibit featuring roughly 25 works by seven artists who were formerly healthcare practitioners. The show was curated by Cynthia Roznoy, a former ob-gyn nurse who left medicine to get a Ph.D. in art history and now manages the Whitney Museum of American Art's Stamford, Connecticut branch. Artists in the show include June Ahrens, a former psychiatric and public health nurse who creates sculpture out of bars of soap, latex and gauze; Libbie Soffer, a former dental hygienist who creates sculpture out of fabric; Elizabeth Hill, a former pediatric nurse who makes sculptures of children (Hill and Soffer are both local artists); Frederick Franck, who holds medical and dental degrees, and now paints, sculpts and writes (he's published 37 books); Sharon Gilmore, a former rehabilitation nurse who's showing a reclining wheelchair covered with sod and pebbles; a former opthalmologist, Rosalind Kaplan; and a former psychoanalyst, Cynthia Stone.

The opening reception, on Wednesday, June 17, 5-7 p.m., will feature music by the Philhormonics, a jazz band made up of—what else?—endocrinologists.

June 17-July 10, Esther M. Klein Gallery, University City Science Center, 3600 Market St., 849-5790.

-Jennifer Darr