Atelier Montclair Exhibits Laura Petrovich-Cheney's ?Salvaged Hurricane Sandy Wood Sculptures

Atelier Montclair is pleased to present the work of award winning artist Laura Petrovich-Cheney from May 13 - June 3, 2016.

Laura Petrovich-Cheney’s latest series of salvaged Hurricane Sandy wood sculptures has been gaining widespread attention locally and nationally. The artist collected the remains left behind—floorboards, windows, cabinets, furniture— while salvaging her family’s home and repurposed this material to create wall sculptures.

Petrovich-Cheney’s art is inspired by traditional American patchwork designs—designs that are familiar and comforting. “I create new relationships between color, proportion, texture, and surfaces and never interfere with the original colors,” she explains. “The faded colors and tattered surfaces of the wood are a nostalgic glimpse into the past. The visual history of the salvaged wood—the chipped layers of paint, the nail holes, the grain—tells a story. The work is rooted in repetition and pattern to mimic life, growth, regeneration, and tells a story: What once was is born anew.”

Petrovich-Cheney exhibited her collection of larger salvaged Hurricane Sandy wood sculptures to critical acclaim at the James Howe Gallery at Kean University in July 2015. Atelier Montclair is pleased to be showcasing some of her smaller 12” x 12” salvaged wood sculptures during the month of May. An opening public reception will be held on Friday, May 13, 2016, from 6:00 - 8:00 PM with an artist meet and greet.This exhibition will also be a part of the Montclair Art Walk on May 20, 2016. All are welcome at both events.

About LAURA PETROVICH-CHENEY: Laura Petrovich-Cheney is a sculptor whose work is inspired by nature as an allegory to the human experience. Petrovich-Cheney was born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey. She currently resides in Asbury Park, NJ, and works in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her BA in fine arts and English Literature at Dickinson College, an MS degree in fashion design from Drexel University and graduated Summa Cum Laude with an MFA in studio arts from Moore College of Art & Design.

Her work is in several public collections and has been exhibited nationally including solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. Past exhibitions include A.I.R. Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE), among others. She was awarded a grant from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and received awards from the National Art Education Association, the Council for Arts Education, National Academy of Art and the New Jersey State Department of Education. When she is not teaching or making art, Petrovich-Cheney maintains several native flower gardens and a small orchard that sustains her two colonies of honeybees.

About ATELIER MONTCLAIR: Atelier Montclair is a clothing, accessories and art showroom and boutique that offers one of a kind couture works by local designers as well as vintage couture, accoutrements and hard to find designer pieces.