Denise Mumm Art: The Collaborative Process: Our Exhibition Is On View at the Tottenville Library, Staten Island

Bruce Cohn and I had the opening reception for Abrazo Argentina: Embracing A Culture last Saturday. It was that special public moment when we could share the fruits of our labor and celebrate with the people closest to us, talk about our processes, and get some feedback about the work. We are happy to do that on an individual basis throughout the month, if someone wants to contact us (see previous blogpost for details).

Denise and Bruce, at right, talking about our artwork
with friends at opening; library patrons in foreground.

By the end of installation day on Friday we were exhausted, after doggedly and efficiently installing our work both upstairs, high up on the walls in the reading room, and downstairs in the community rooms, but were very satisfied. Just as we knew they would, the paintings and the photographs worked as a cohesive unit and we feel proud of the body of work and their presentation in the library. Our careful planning paid off.

Recoleta Cemetery, 72” x 48”

paper lithography, collage, acrylic on canvas

Denise leading tour,
Tango Dancers on the Street
72” x 48”, paper lithography, collage, acrylic on canvas

The space available to us at the library was generous, but not without its challenges. We could hang work anywhere, but we had to use the picture rails. That required researching hardware online. We used "antique" brass hooks to hang all the work from the railing, with brass lanyards to hook onto the eyes of the canvas supports and many miles of picture wire strung from the photos.

48"x73 ½"

paper lithography, collage, acrylic on canvas

To hang work under light fixtures in the community room, Bruce and his friend Joel Teicher created an ingenious solution of using a strip of wood, suspended by plastic coated wire wrapped around the light fixtures, and tightened by a turnbuckle. The photos were suspended from eye screws screwed into the bottom of the wooden strip.