RoCA is proud to present the The Enchanted Garden: Colors in Motion exhibit as a part of a tribute to the 20th Century artist and feminist, Dorothy Gillespie. The exhibit will open October 15th in The Catherine Konner Sculpture Park at RoCA. \ \ Dorothy Gillespie’s joyful and brilliantly colored starbursts glimmer hanging from the trees as well as lining the pathway. The pieces create an enchanted garden of colors in motion. Though stationary they seem to possess a kinetic quality. Two larger pieces can be seen at the entry to RoCA. The exhibit was partially installed this summer and will be completed for exhibit October 15th. The exhibit will remain on display through October 2023. \ \ Gillespie (1920-2012) was born in Roanoke, VA and lived in Nyack during the later years of her life. She pioneered joyful, new directions of metal sculpture and is best known for large-scale, colorfully painted arrangements of cut aluminum strips curling, radiating, or undulating in giant arrangements of ribbons, enchanted towers, or bursting fireworks. She was well known as a painter, sculptor and installation artist whose work incorporated many significant 20th-century trends in art. \ \ Today many more women are now entering traditional male dominated sculpture roles in metal, wood and stone, thanks to the pioneering activism of women like Dorothy Gillespie in the 20th century. An influential force in the women’s movement, Gillespie encouraged more women’s art in museums and art in public spaces. In 1970, Gillespie joined Women in the Arts and created picket signs protesting at the Whitney Museum demanding that the curators choose more women artists for their “Annual exhibition. The demonstration worked, and more women artists were chosen for the show. Although the increase was very slow, over time it increased from 8 percent to 40 percent. Gillespie was the Founder of the Women Artists Historical Archives of the Women’s Interart Center in NY, NY, filming and tapin
