Layers- Material & Meaning
Juried by Bridget Donlon
Curatorial Statement
Within the entry for collage in Ralph Mayer’s The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques, first published in 1940, there are ten different terms in French: Affiche lacérées, Brulage, Coulage, Déchirage, Décollage, Dépouillage, Éclaboussage, Flottage, Froissage, Frottage, Fumage, Grattage, Lacéré anonyme, and Papier déchiré. Each describes a unique technique for applying something to a substrate. Elsewhere, in the Conservation section, there is a detailed diagram, Anatomy of an Oil Painting, which features seven distinct layers from linen support to dirt on top. One layer is The Painting, with an admission that there could be a couple of sub-layers that comprise The Painting.
At the time of the handbook’s original printing, collage as fine art was still a relatively new concept and therefore perhaps more interesting to define, requiring close to a dozen specific descriptors. Painting, in its existence for most of humanity, with its infinite permutations, only needs one. As Modern Art has given way to Post-Modern and now Contemporary Art, the delineations become less distinct and significant. Today, artists have at their disposal techniques of printmaking, quilting, ceramics, watercolor, assemblage, wood carving, oil paint, and, of course, collage, and any combination therein or beyond to make art. Modes of artmaking become more broad and open, with more opportunity for richness.
– Bridget Donlon
Room One
Melissa Dorn’s wall hangings using mop fibers and Weiting Wei’s works in polymer clay demonstrate the alluring tactility and possible iterations of a singular material. Meanwhile, the digitally printed and sewn strips by Margery Amdur and ceramics and crochet combinations by Shirah Rubin show the appeal of combining textures and surfaces.
Room Two
Works by Tatiana Ginsberg and Tricia Wright present distinct approaches to the medium of handmade papermaking to create works dealing with language and narratives. Layers of color and form in works by Alexis Gallo, Lori Goldberg, and Alicia Quijano play with symbology, both real and invented.
Room Three
The fine skills of the hand are evident in papercuttings by Jackie Brown, quilts by Cat Mailloux, and various printmaking processes by Alice Sims-Gunzenhauser. The hand is substituted in Joyce Billet’s laser carved wood imitations of paintings and Lisse Wiliams’s collaborations with nature.
Room Four
Artwork by Monica Carrol, Mark Oldland, and Fatemeh Tajadddod draws upon distinct personal memories in varied traditional and digital image making processes, screenprinting, and embroidery. Sarah Leahy’s ink on plexiglass scenes and an object lovingly rendered on packing paper by Jeanne Verdoux present other moments of experience.
Room Five
Working in the realm of painting, Claire Brandt, Stevan Dupus, Allison Hilgert, Earl Grenville Killeen, and Sam Snell employ the medium in unique reflections on identity and embodiment. These pieces share a common tradition but wildly different outcomes.
Room Six
The material can be inherent to the meaning of the work. The form of Mujero Abreu’s work is determined by its material, incorporating sneakers and bedsheets. Plants embedded into Michele Brody’s paper comment on urbanism and ecology. Paper folders, a repository of information, were created by Noah Lagel out of pulped dictionaries. John Miles’ fragmented papers and found images collage together as the whole of a domestic interior.