Charlotte Mouquin Was ‘Candescence’

In its current exhibition, Candescence, Pelham Art Center (PAC) celebrates the legacy of its late executive director, Charlotte Mills Mouquin Voznesenskaya (Mouquin).

By creating opportunities for direct interaction with artists and their works, Mouquin helped to build a more inclusive and vibrant cultural community. For instance, she developed the Teen Artist Council and worked with the Arts Council of Rockland Mentorship program. This dedication to local artists, according to those who attended the exhibition’s recent opening reception, was the impetus for launching workshops, artist talks, public programs and more, all of which helped to engage diverse audiences and make art accessible to a broader audience.

Mouquin wasn’t only a leader; she was an artist, too. According to her website, her artistic philosophy was “finding a poetic balance in composition.” Her body of works, often abstract and done in vibrant colors, consists of works on paper; paintings on canvas and wood; ceramics; and bas-relief sculptures.

Candescence, which was curated by PAC’s gallery and events manager, Rosa Van Zandt, and PAC Gallery Advisory Committee members Paula Wood and Lisa Koonce, aims to emphasize Mouquin’s role as, what the curators referred to as, the “light” that “connected people through art.”

In her artist statement, Mouquin had stated: “My artwork is an exploration of human emotions, chaos, rotations, growth and healing… Circular orbs are repeated in the work, representing points of meditation, punctuation, rest, seed pods, embryos, cycles and cells. These circular shifting symbols are pathways of discovery through both a microcosmic and macro-cosmic landscape of consciousness.” 

However, Mouquin considered as her primary purpose in creating “to connect people, places and concepts.” Lisa Koonce emphasizes that, while Mouquin was impactful as an artist, curator, educator and non-profit arts leader, “through all of these roles, she was a connector – of people, ideas, opportunities and communities.” This is what the curators hope will be evident in the exhibition.

Alongside Mouquin’s own work, the exhibition features the work of more than thirty artists from several different communities. Van Zandt explains that these were all artists who “[Mouquin], and her bright, artistic vision, has powerfully impacted throughout her life.”

To prepare for the exhibition, organizers reached out to people for memories and quotes: several hundred artists and curators, as well as a subset of artists that represented Mouquin’s connections at various stages of her professional life.

In Koonce’s speech during the show’s opening reception, she noted: “It is amazing how closely submissions have been in dialogue with Charlotte’s own works around themes of vision, connection – at human, cellular and cosmic level – portals, and a luminosity or candescence that is often juxtaposed with darkness… Charlotte’s career and community followed a circular, non-linear path, cycling through various communities and periods of activity.”

Mouquin’s role of the “connector” is seen in many quotes and memories interspersed between artworks throughout the exhibition. Artist Gail Skudera remembers “her amazing ability to turn a room of people who may or may not know each other into a circle of friendship and conversation about art and what means the most for them.”

Many also mentioned Mouquin’s propensity to nurture and welcome local emerging artists and curators. Artist Kate Fauvell, whose urban landscapes are on display in Candescence, mentions that Mouquin gave her her first solo show in a NYC gallery, adding that her own successes are “so much to do with her [Mouquin’s] belief and support from the very beginning.”

Artist Souleo’s quote reflects on how Mouquin championed him when he was beginning his work as a curator: “she was always supporting curators and artists who were emerging, marginalized, and/or working in new and exciting ways.”

Australian artist Jaime Wright, whose Blue Purple Eternal is in the exhibition, had a similar story to tell. When she first came to Pelham Charlotte “grabbed [Wright’s] arm and walked [her] through the crowd, announcing [her] proudly to everyone, ‘We have a new artist in the community, this is Jamie, and she is amazing’.”

In a video that accompanies the exhibition, Mouquin uses a metaphor of tree branches to demonstrate peoples’ connection to nature and each other. She urges people: “wear your branches.” By this, she means to stay grounded while also reaching out to each other. The full room of opening reception attendees was perhaps a testament to her desire to extend her own branches; her way to include and connect as many people as possible to build a stronger art community. 

The capital campaign Charlotte Mouquin began in 2023 was met in 2024, and the tribute exhibition is taking place in the newly renovated PAC. As co-curator Paula Wood states: “[Charlotte] found a way to open a community-sized umbrella to shelter the Pelham Art Center for future generations.”

The exhibition will be on view at PAC until August 30.

Art works: Color Web 2 & Warrior by Charlotte Mouquin.