Oct. 3, 2002 – In the far corner of the second story of a newly renovated building in downtown Cruz Bay's Lumberyard complex, a new art workspace and showplace will open its doors to the public on Friday.
The proprietor is one of the territory's most successful artists, longtime St. John resident Janet Cook-Rutnik, and she has named her new studio and gallery Solo Arte ("Only Art"), because that's what visitors will find within its walls.
Instead of a formal opening, she is opting to host an "open studio" on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. It is, she says, an occasion that is less formal than your usual reception, in that it features works in a variety of mediums "with the emphasis on a casual presentation and discussion of media and technique. A lot of the work is unframed … and generally lower in price for that reason."
And, she continues, it's "the kind of show where you can pull out drawers and inquire about all sorts of 'artifacts' and ask all those questions about art" that you've always been afraid to put into words. (She adds the caveat that she may not have all the answers.)
The gallery's first featured artist is, not surprisingly, Cook-Rutnik herself. She's showing acrylic paintings on canvas, pastels and prints on paper, and a three-dimensional installation she calls "Ode to the Muse."
Cook-Rutnik's "muse" has been a physical presence in her artwork since 1999, as she has improvised unique installations built around the manniquin to suit her exhibitions.
In "Recuerdo," her solo show at the Muséo de las Américas in Old San Juan, her room-size installation titled "Pandora's Box" incorporated the draped mannequin, a 7-foot painting, a child's chair from Haiti, and personal and found objects and natural debris that spilled out of a large chest in the center of the room. Gallery goers viewed the whole tableau through a large gold frame hung at the entrance to the room.
For her show "On the Other Side of Dreams," which toured from Albany, New York, to Washington, D.C., to Seaside, Florida, she transformed her muse for each occasion and locale, with adornments of fall leaves for New York's October weather, deep purples in Washington's winter and spring flowers in the Florida Panhandle.
The opening Solo Arte show will find the muse in a milieu (shown in the accompanying photo) of soft reds and yellows.
Cook-Rutnik describes her new 600-square-foot space in the Lumberyard's Building No. 4 as a "beautiful, spacious gallery tucked in among the trees" which has the added attractions of wall expanses of more than 20 feet and a high ceiling that in combination "offer artists an opportunity to show their work under the most ideal conditions." Only artwork and only the work of one artist at a time will be exhibited.
She's incorporating a cooperative aspect into the operation — the gallery commission on sales will be lower than normal, but the artist will share in the costs of mounting the exhibition.
Active in the Virgin Islands art scene for more than 30 years, Cook-Rutnik opened her first gallery, The Art Project, in Cruz Bay in 1976, "where Miss Meada's house and restaurant once stood." Many of today's prominent island artists got their first local exposure in the West Indian cottage with its two rooms and shuttered windows and doors.
Her second gallery, At the Plum Tree, opened years later, right across the street, in a structure she designed and built behind Ruth Stephens' yellow plum tree — which still graces the front yard of the building, now occupied by Today's Flowers.
For a number of years, Cook-Rutnik also has been conducting printmaking workshops at her home studio in Fish Bay. Now, she has moved that aspect of her art to Solo Arte, too, with her etching press already up and running in the new space. She started offering printmaking workshops in August, with participants invited to show and discuss their work at the "open studio."
On Friday, she will demonstrate "a little of the art of printmaking" on her etching press where she pulls original monotypes, collagraphs and linocuts, "and explain the different techniques," she says.
To view her work online, visit the Cook-Rutnik Art Web site.
Artists, both resident and visiting, who are interested in exhibiting at the gallery can communicate with Cook-Rutnik in person Friday evening or contact her by e-mailing to Cook Rutnik or calling 693-8069.
For St. Thomas art lovers, Cook-Rutnik notes that the Lumberyard is a short walk from the ferry dock.
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