Fabiola Alondra / Anna Furney / Erin Goldberger / Jane Harmon. Minerva

About

They are curators, art gallery owners/directors, writers, Know Wave radio interviewers.
The artists in the exhibition came to Minvera through a secondary recommendation. Each of the women asked an art world icon who they were looking at – who they liked. From there Minerva made the selection. Andrea Belag through Marilyn Minter through Jane Harmon. Sally Saul through Peter Saul through Anna Furney. Kurt Kauper through Jeffrey Deitch through Fabiola Alondra. Lucy Mink-Covello through Betty Tompkins through Erin Goldberger.

Minerva’s story is a story of Parthenogenesis, the creation of a god, the creator of creators.

Minerva and Athena,( the Greek Minerva) were born of from the head of their father, Jupiter or Zeus. He literally thought her up. Or perhaps she thought herself up, haunting the divine mind touched by prophecy. Among the Etruscans she was Menerva, derived from mens or mind, and the things of the mind were her domain.

But why was Minerva on the great god’s mind, and then the minds of men? The thunder put her mother there himself, to lock her up, afraid of a prophesy that his child would overthrow him. Meanwhile the Olympian suffered Titanic headaches as Minerva’s mom, Metis created weapons for the fetal goddess. On the verge of madness Jupiter had his brother split his head open, and Minerva emerged, fully grown and fully armed. And in a way the goddess did surpass the father, and with her great wisdom she presided over music, medicine and magic. A virgin, she is depicted as a beautiful warrior, sad more than triumphant in victory, but she is exultant as the goddess of poetry and the arts.

It might be said that Minerva dreamed herself up in the protective skull of the Thunderer—the prototypical case of parthenogenesis, reproduction without fertilization, immaculate conception as the Catholics would put it, conceptual conception and an artist would put it.

The Minervite is the self-made woman. Her mind is made up, and remade in her own image. She is the mistress of illusion. She puts on her face. She puts on another. She is the ultimate creator of the self-portrait, a shape shifter whose art is herself. As a work of art the Minervan may also be an artist and a muse, the gigs are interrelated. She may be a model, hopefully not in the fashion model sense but as a model artist, an exemplar. She is an agent and cognoscente. When she’s at her best she excels by example. When her clients are bewitched, bothered and bewildered. When she performs the task commonly called curator, she reminds us of the root of the word, curare, to cure. She can inflict wounds in the wars of words and image, but she can also heal them.

She has a great eye. It has an I in it. This I changes what it beholds; beauty is in it. An I for an I. An I and I for I and an I and I for you.