The Library Painting by Mia Enell

The painting was inspired by the nature of book and reading within the environment of libraries.  The book as shelter, invites one to the solitude and silence of reading, and in some occasions leads magically to different forms of exchange between people.  The images of connecting threads in the painting were inspired by ancient Inca Khipu colored knotted string pieces probably used for communication.  The Library Painting makes playful and subtle references to the complicated nature of gestural and verbal communication, and the imagery acts as a bridge between the verbal and the visual experience encountered in a work of art.

Mid-Manhattan Library will host an artist’s talk, “The Library Dialogue,” with Ms. Enell and William Stover, assistant curator of Contemporary Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, along with the screening of one of her most recent videos, Pouring, on February 27 at 6:30 pm.  The talk will take place on the Library's 6th floor.

The Library Painting by Mia Enell
The Art Collection at Mid-Manhattan Library
455 Fifth Avenue at 40th Street
New York City
January 5 - April 14, 2006

For more information: www.nypl.org/events

Image: The Library Painting (detail ), 52 x 84 inches
© Mia Enell