Sarah Serio's Triptych of Internal Strife Shows at the MAPC Show

Yes, the close is near for the Mid America Print Council Members' Fall 2011 Show, which has been a resounding success. The exhibition will close on January 6, but I wanted to get in a couple more pieces that have yet to be reviewed. Above we see Sarah Serio's dark-themed triptych, called 'The Subjection, The Despair, The Burden". Serio is a young artist, with an additional educational background in journalism and communication arts.

This piece speaks to the general internal struggles women find themselves involved in - vulnerability to advances(wanted or not), the despair that comes from a bad experience or loss of a love, and the burden that one carries around with them in the aftermath. Her images communicate well the ideas she wants to discuss - the first image with a revealed back turned and hunched inward show more the uncertainty of the experience about to unfold. The anguish expressed in the central image shows all too clearly the shame or sorrow that occurred in the first image, and the reclining figure's mournful repose unveils woman's emotional resignation as she figures out how to deal with it.

Utilizing her photographic experience, the faces of the woman have been deliberately obscured and cropped to make them an archetype - because Serio wants to project the series as every woman can, or has, experienced these feelings at some point in their lives. It's not a pleasant topic but unfortunately a frequent one. We'll see how Serio progresses with the series, and how or if she wants to speak further on topics associated with women.