IN THE ANNEX: MAY 2023

Fanuel Muindi + Deborah Pressman + Susan Siefer

May 4–28, 2023
SoWa First Friday Art Walk: Friday, May 5, 2023, | 5:00–8:00 PM

Deborah Pressman, Fanuel Muindi, and Susan Siefer take over the Annex in May with a diversity of media. They share an excitement with the ephemeral and the unknown. Pressman honors our fragile natural world. Muindi captures the excitement of the streets. Siefer relays stories and memories.

PRICE LIST (PDF) ➢

Fanuel Muindi

The train track, archival digital print, 20 x 20 inches, framed

The walk down, archival digital print, 16 x 20 inches, framed

The stairs to infinity, archival digital print, 16 x 20 inches, framed

The other side, archival digital print, 12 x 12 inches, framed

The stairs to infinity, archival digital print, 16 x 20 inches, framed

Fanuel Muindi is a street photographer who primarily employs black-and-white imagery to “strip away the noise” that he finds associated with color. After a short stint experimenting with macro-photography, Muindi discovered his true passion for street photography while contributing as a Google Maps reviewer and photographer. He loves to experiment, and his current focus lies in capturing the complex relationships between people and the surrounding architecture from new points of view.

After earning a doctorate in organismal biology, Muindi evolved into a civic science scholar and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the SAi Group, a non-profit incubator that provides funding and community to emerging scholars and social entrepreneurs to enable them to launch new science engagement initiatives worldwide. Originally from Tanzania in East Africa, Muindi brings extensive international experience to his photography. Muindi's work has been featured in local juried art exhibitions in Malden and Melrose. Some of his photographs are also part of the Boston Children’s Hospital collection. He received his PhD from Stanford University in 2013 and a BS in Biology from Morehouse College in 2008. Muindi lives and works from Attleboro, Massachusetts.

Deborah Pressman

Almost Spring, cold wax, 19 x 22 inches, framed

Estuary, cold wax, 24.5 x 30 inches, framed

River Bank, cold wax, 24.5 x 30 inches, ramed

Spring Thaw, cold wax, 19 x 22 inches, framed

Mountain Mist, cold wax, 24.5 x 30 inches, framed

Deborah Pressman found magic in her high school darkroom. Today she finds that magic in printmaking and painting using cold wax, oil sticks, ink and graphite. Pressman’s art is founded in her relationship with the land, with the fragile places…their beauty and vulnerability.

· melting glaciers

· threatened estuaries

· tinder dry forests

Lines from Fire and Ice by Robert Frost haunt her.“ ….some say the world will end in fire…some say in ice…” Landscape through the lens of superimposed images is a recurring subject in Pressman’s work. Expanding and compressing the depth of field shows the micro and macro world simultaneously. Weather, changes of seasons, consequences of global warming constantly influence her work.

Deborah Marum Pressman earned a BFA in Photography from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. As a photographer for the architectural firm Venturi, Rauch and Scott- Brown, she worked on the Bicentennial Exhibition “Signs and Symbols in the American Landscape” (Renwick Gallery 1976). She changed careers shortly thereafter – attending medical school and spending over 30 years as an internist. Throughout her years of medical practice, she continued making art in multiple media, including photography, printmaking, and metalsmithing. She is currently an active member of New England Wax and North Country Studio Workshops. In 2021 she curated the exhibition “Vision 2021: Found, Formed, Fused” at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. She lives in Natick with her husband and their standard poodle

Susan Siefer

Material Girls 1,2,3, plaster, textures, weaving, pigment, gold leaf, decorative elements, 14 x 50 inches

Migration, plasters, textures, weaving, beads, gold leaf, cut outs, henna, mica, 24 x 42 inches

Rebekka, stiffened canvas, weaving, mica, metallic leaf, Italian trimming, 24 x 42 inches

Swirling, venetian plaster, 24k gold leaf, pattern, beads, 24 x 42 inches

Adornment, venetia plaster, pattern, netting, rhinestones, gold leaf, weaving, 24 x 42 inches

Agnes, stiffened canvas, weaving, metallic leaf, decorative elements, 24 x 42 inches

Annie, stiffened canvas, weaving, metallic leaf, decorative elements, 24 x 42 inches

Artemesia, stiffened canvas, weaving, mica, silver leaf, rhinestones, 24 x 42 inches

Susan Siefer’s recent body of work integrates textiles with multi- layered fresco textures creating canvas tapestries. Siefer’s early engagement with weaving and her decades as a decorative painter has been the catalyst for her current studio practice. The colors and patterns reference her several trips to Morocco. Using remnants from the past including recycled weavings, paintings and inherited family garments, old memories meld into new ideas. Her imagery has evolved into a collective of iconic feminine forms, soulfully embellished. Each relay a rich individual presence. The stories and struggles of the creative independent women that have paved the way remain in spirit. This includes Siefer’s own cultural line of strong Jewish females. These same elements translate into her three- dimensional “Shelters”, a safe place to huddle. Within the daily chaos of local and world events, Siefer strives to create some whimsy with the back story always a thought away.

Susan Siefer is a painter and textile based artist working out of her studio in Waltham MA. She received her BA in Fine Art and her MFA in Textile Design and Weaving at Wayne University in Detroit MI. Prior to her current fulltime studio practice she was a decorative painter, using Italian plasters, textures and pattern on walls and. Siefer’s work has been shown in the Boston and New England area including Galatea Gallery, Fountain Street Gallery, Cambridge Art Association, Hess Gallery, Mosesian Gallery, and in private collections. She had a residency at Green Olive Arts in Tetouan, Morocco during the summer of 2019. Her work has recently been published in Fiber Art Now.