In the second installment of Art at the Institute this year, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research sponsored an exhibition by local artist Lisa Solomon. The exhibition, which opened Monday, is a colorful and creative cross-section of race, ethnicity and gender.

"Lisa [Solomon] welds traditional craft with contemporary art processes and materials while addressing themes such as domesticity, violence, mending, healing, history and narrative," said the institute's art curator, Amy Daponte. "For me, such a fusion investigates issues and ideas at the core of gender studies as well as studies of race and ethnicity."

Solomon's work was a natural fit for the institute's mission statement and the aims of the year-long art series, she said.

"As a half Japanese, half Jewish Caucasian American, race—or rather this feeling of being between races and cultures—is a part of my day-to-day life," Solomon said of her inspiration for the exhibition. "I find that my work is often rooted in the idea of hybridization—the fusing of elements, materials, and/or ideas that may at first seem disparate—and this certainly is how I see myself—as a hybrid." The Oakland-based artist also explained that her use of "'traditional' women's working methods" was a social comment on objects of domesticity and gender identity.

Solomon, a Tucson native, attended undergraduate and graduate programs in the Bay Area (at University of California, Berkeley and Mills College, respectively). Her work has been featured in numerous solo, two-person and three-person exhibitions. In addition, she is decorated with several local honors, has a public collection at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto and a public commission by Starbuck's.  

Daponte contacted Solomon to invite her to participate in the exhibition last year. She says she was also drawn to the opportunity by the involvement of her former professor, Gail Wight, and the institute's commitment to examining gender issues in today's society.

The exhibition will be showing until early March. The art can be viewed at Serra House at Stanford, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In April, Solomon will display some of her new work at the Nicoletta Rusconi Gallery in Milan. For more information on Solomon's work and her background, refer to her personal website.