At A Cafe paintings by artist Rachel Kerwin are currently on display. We are open Tuesday through Saturday at 6:00pm, and you are welcome to come view the exhibition.

Artist Statement

In my work, I look to situate the daily experience of individuals by altering the context in which they manifest their behavior. The events of the last half decade in Iraq led me to explore how its women endure and respond to situations outside of their control. My portrait works attempt to understand Iraqi women in light of occupation, but also in spite of it. By shifting the focus to the faces behind the issues, I hope to reinsert humanity into the viewer's thought process and stem the numbing effect that comes from seeing so many images of war. The journalistic photography coming in from Iraq have provided us with a cross-section of their daily life and interactions distilled in their expressions. Nonetheless, how we see these pictures remain largely based on our portrayals of their society. To what extent can we, as outsiders, truly understand an individual and her society from this point of view? By placing the viewer's attention on the women without the distraction of context, my hope is that we begin to question the assumptions of what we know and recognize the limits of that knowledge.

- Rachel Kerwin