An art exhibit named Body Beautiful located at the Tumon Sands Plaza opened its doors to the public over the weekend.
Dawn Lees Reyes talks about the current exhibition at the Lees-Reyes Art Gallery, “My name is Dawn Lees Reyes and we are at the Lees-Reyes Art Gallery and this exhibit that we have now is Body Beautiful, which focuses on the human figure.”
One of the featured artists, Tara Sood talks about what inspires her work in which she stated, “Having graduated with a Masters of Fine Art, a lot of stuff we did had to involve the figure and I discovered I loved the figure, and I love it moving and I really like painting people when they don’t know they’re being painted so when they’re involved in their work or involved in thinking about something else because it gets these emotions that come out on their face that you would never be able to get otherwise.”
The participants in this exhibit were Andrea Borja, Cheyanne Atole, Chie Numano, Dawn Lees Reyes, Dorathina Herrero, Geraldine Datuin, Ian Harris, Jack Barron, Jerrold Dwayne Castro, Julia Birn, Maila Pujol, Mar-Vic Cagurangan, Maria Sol Duenas Marques, Merc Tenorio, Richelle Canto, Snyder Macaraeg, Sydney Savares, Tara Sood, and Yeon Sook Park.
Dawn Lees Reyes, Artist and Gallery Manager stated, “Generally, I like my work to be about something or to tell a story or express an idea so for example, many years ago I got interested in feminist art and I started to think about what that means to me as a woman. And then I started to think about concepts of beauty and what a goddess is in that manner for a while. Then I decided that maybe I should learn about the CHamoru culture so I started digging into that and doing artwork about that. Now, more recently my work is very abstracting. But still I like it to be about something so it’s either about my connection with nature or my connection with personal ideas.”
According to Reyes, the Lees-Reyes Art Gallery is functioning under the nonprofit, the Flame Tree Freedom Center, whose main goal is to help individuals with disabilities obtain employment and to also support the arts.
Reyes also talked about other events and future exhibitions, “So when this one is finished in August, August 2nd this one comes down. Then I have a very talented woman exhibiting a solo– doing her first solo next month. Her name is Aja Nancy Marie Reyes. And then September, we’re doing Flower Power, which is a way to present to the community native flora of Guam. So just to get that idea out there and awareness in people’s heads. And then in October we’re going to do Alternate Realities group show. And that will be an opportunity for artists to kind of present work in those things in that world. Like maybe taotaomo’na, maybe certain legends and stories, perhaps painting about dreams.”
The Body Beautiful exhibition will be ongoing until Aug. 2 from 10 am to 8 pm and is located at the Lees-Reyes Art Gallery, 2nd floor of the Tumon Sands Plaza.
For more information, please e-mail Dawn at dawnleesreyes@gmail.com.
