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Traditional Japanese ikebana flower arrangements neighbor landscape paintings of sandy ocean shores on the walls of the Petit Branch Library for its annual Women’s History Month exhibition.

“There’s a lot of things in there,” artist Manya Goldstein said. “It gives you something to look at. There’s so much going on that I hope you never get bored with it.

Artist Geraldine Greig started the exhibition in 2015 as a way to honor women and serve as an outlet for female expression, said Barbara Conte-Gaugel, a featured artist and friend of Greig. This year’s “Women’s History Month Exhibition: Focus on the Feminine” features a series of multidimensional art including drawings, prints, paintings and mixed media. The show is on display through the month of March.

All of the works are created by women or feature women.

The exhibit opened earlier this month with a reception, where featured artists connected with one another and listened to poetry readings from local women writers.

Conte-Gaugel has been a part of the Women’s History Month exhibition for the past five years and has had several solo exhibits with Petit Branch Library. She said she first decided to take part in the exhibition because of her love for women’s empowerment and admiration for the event and its mission.

Simcha Glassman, a librarian for Petit Branch Library, said the exhibition gives local artists a chance to display their work in an accessible, community-based space. Glassman began planning the event in September by reaching out to artists who live in the Westcott neighborhood and surrounding Syracuse area. She appreciates that the library has given artists a chance to share their one-of-a-kind works in a semi-professional setting.

“It’s very vast. There’s no one type of work,” Glassman said. “It’s all over the board.”

Glassman said it felt good to connect the library with local artists through this exhibition. She hopes it serves as a way to honor these artists and the work, dedication and effort they put into their craft.

“(There’s) a lot of joyful work in (the exhibit) too,” Conte-Gaugel said. “And when people got together for the reception, they’re all meeting each other and talking at such a social event, that’s fun.”

Artist Jia Man showcased her traditional Japanese artwork in this year’s exhibition. Jia, who is also a professor of Chinese and Japanese at Le Moyne College, hopes to continue teaching American people about Japanese art and culture, specifically ikebana, which she said means “giving life to flowers.”

The traditional Japanese floral arrangements represent solitude and simplicity, Jia said. The figurines feature natural materials like bark and rock. The flowers aim to show the fleeting beauty of nature and the natural harmony of the environment. The sculptures were photographed and captured for display in the exhibition. The flowers also hold ties to traditional Zen Buddhism culture.

“The photography (of the ikebana) preserves the natural harmony and the organic structure of the flowers, branches, stone and wood,” Jia said. “I created ikebana from the heart.”

As a means of teaching Chinese and Japanese culture to students, Jia has also conducted workshops with the Moynihan Institute’s East Asia program in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. During these workshops, Jia introduced attendees to the basic principles and structures of ikebana history and philosophy. She also taught them how to create their own ikebana arrangements.

“Flower art is often more like decoration, focusing on aesthetic beauty and design. Ikebana, with its focus on simplicity, balance and nature, is deeply meditative and healing,” Jia said.

Goldstein, a featured exhibition artist and member of the Onondaga Art Guild, creates art using repurposed discarded items. She often explores thrift stores, searching for used items and old canvases to create her pieces. She recycles the items she finds and turns them into something brand new.

Goldstein has three featured works in the exhibition, ranging in size. Her largest piece in the exhibit is titled “The Engagement.” The shrine-like box display contains trinkets and a series of collected items from Goldstein’s mother, including black-and-white photographs and keepsakes.

“It’s got all the stuff that my mother had saved in a little box on her dresser for years, locked up stuff from her honeymoon and her single life, bits of jewelry,” Goldstein said. “Stuff like that we never knew anything about growing up, you know, you couldn’t go in there.”

Goldstein first discovered art as an outlet to express the chaos she often feels without words, she said. She hopes her art makes viewers feel good and find something new.

Conte-Gaugel’s artistry highlights the outdoors and nature, primarily utilizing oil paint. Four of her landscapes feature scenery from the Outer Banks. The pictures showcase the sandy beaches and high sun rays of the beach town, with some landscapes looking at the ocean and others at the sand dunes behind. Conte-Gaugel traditionally paints landscapes, beginning each one with a simple sketch, she said.

She said the exhibit demonstrates the plethora of diversity in how people view and create art.

“There are a couple things in that exhibit that I never saw anything like before,” Conte-Gaugel said.

Published on March 24, 2025 at 9:55 pm
Contact Sydney: sabrocki@syr.edu