Ode to a Transcendent Mind
Marlene Ekola Gerberick (1935-2018)
Equation of the First Degree
February 25 - April 17, 2021
About The Show
Maybe nothing happens in the present tense….it is all memory. Maybe from eons ago…
~ Marlene Ekola Gerberick
Journal Entry, Vol. 60, 2014
This exhibition is a survey of fascinating, metaphysically infused work in a variety of media from the estate of internationally exhibited visual artist and poet Marlene Ekola Gerberick (1935-2018).
Born on April 29, 1935 in Crystal Falls, Michigan, Marlene was one of four daughters and grew up on her family’s farm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Later, the artist lived with her husband and three sons in Katonah, New York until the family relocated to Bath, Maine, where Marlene resided from 1985 until her death.
As the youngest child, and being significantly younger than her siblings, Marlene spent much of her youth exploring the dense and isolated forests surrounding her home accompanied only by a huge imagination, a bright and inquisitive mind, and the family’s dog. This experience, combined with her Finnish-infused upbringing, created the foundation for her life as an artist. Inspired by her connection to Finland, and sharing the love of nature and solitude of its people, Marlene produced a rich and philosophical body of work that has been exhibited in New York, Michigan, Maine, and Finland.
Throughout her life, Marlene had a pronounced affinity for northern climes and the creatures who inhabit them, as well as a deep spiritual connection to her Finnish roots. The artist’s paternal grandmother, Taava Miina, was a folk healer — a practitioner of herbal medicine, massage, blood cupping, bone setting, and midwifery, who also practiced what Marlene described as a “particular branch of quiet pietism [that] practiced faith healing as well; that of laying on of hands, using the power of prayer for healing.” Taava Miina’s earthy, rough textured, Old World mysticism left a massive and enduring imprint on Marlene’s memory and her aesthetic, as did her grandmother’s foreboding physical presence, and the treasury of Finnish family lore she passed down.
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