Poet Kathy Engel and artist Ellen Driscoll’s Eyechart was a collaborative exhibition combining words and physical art in an accordion-book style sculpture.
“At this historic moment, Engel and Driscoll’s sensibilities are distilled down to their purest essence. The experience and willpower they bring to Eyechart spring from deep reservoirs of commitment and a determination to celebrate each moment of connection as a victory over despair. At our most fragile we can choose to be most open, and perhaps discover new ways to measure the breadth of our existences.” – Joanne McFarland, Artistic Director, Artpoetica
Public events from the exhibit
In addition to the exhibition launch in September 2022, events included a “Behind the Curtain” talk with Driscoll exploring her creative process and a poetry reading where Engel shared new work and selected pieces from Eyechart.
Kathy Engel is a poet and essayist who has worked for many years at the nexus between social justice movements and art/imagination. Her writing has been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Books include Ruth’s Skirts, poems and prose; We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon, co- edited with Kamal Boullata; The Kitchen, with art by German Perez; and the chapbook Banish The Tentative. Her most recent collection of poems is The Lost Brother Alphabet, (Get Fresh Books, 2020). A member of the Elma’s Heart Circle poetry group and a 2021 Pushcart nominee, with the writer Alexis De Veaux, she co-founded the project Lyrical Democracies. She is Associate Arts Professor in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Department of Art and Public Policy and Master’s Program in Arts Politics.
Ellen Driscoll’s work encompasses sculpture, drawing, and public art installation. Recent large scale installations include “Site Woven” for the Charles R. Jonas Federal Courthouse in Charlotte, NC; “CartOURgraphy” for Middle College High School and the International High School in Queens, NY; “Bower” at ArtPark in Lewiston, NY with Joyce Hwang and Matt Hume; and “Night to Day, Here and Away” for the Sarasota National Cemetery. She has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bunting Institute at Harvard University, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Anonymous Was a Woman; and is the recipient of a Fine Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work is included in major public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Art. She is Professor of Sculpture at Bard College and the 2018 recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from the International Sculpture Center.