12 Voices
12 Voices is a traveling exhibition organized by The Studio Art Quilt Association and the work was chosen by Penny McMorris from portfolio submissions. Each artist had several pieces and I was surprised as to the sizes of most of the work as they were larger pieces.
Artists whose work stood out were Susie Shie, Deidra Adams and Joan Schulz. I had never seen one of Susie's pieces in person so that was a treat. Susie 'honey', "you've got it goin on!" The work is bright, complex and rich and very fresh. The 'fresh' element is special because she has a very well defined style and sometimes artists get stale working in their own style but this is not happening with this work.
There were 3 works by Deidra Adams and the pieces were nicely displayed side-by-side. My favorite of the three was Composition I. If you have not seen Deidra's work, she pieces and then uses heavy quilting over which she applies paint. This makes the quilting lines pop out of the work and creates a very textured visual surface. I also found the color in this work to be very effective.
The printed information stated that each artists had 3-5 works in the show, however, we saw only 2 pieces by Joan Schulze. That may have been due to the size of her pieces as each was approximately 6-8 feet wide. Both works were constructed from paper laminated elements and most of the paper had been left on the piece rather than washed off as is often done. I felt very connected to both pieces but one had wonderful painted marks on the front which added color, texture and the hand of the artist which I felt made it a stronger piece.
Congratulations to everyone in the show. It now travels to the Lauren Roberts Museum of Art in Laurel, Ms.
225 F: Encaustic Encounters
This exhibition was curated by TCVA's Assistant Curator Brook Bower. The exhibition focused on encaustic painting exploring naturalistic themes from the work of fourteen artists. The group of works challenges the established traditions of the media with expressive and innovative uses of the media and really opened my eyes to what is going on with encaustics.
The work of five of the artists caught my eye. Jane Nodine, Tracey Adams, Molly Cliff-Hilts and Mary Black.
Jane Nodine is a friend and I wrote an Artist Profile on her last year. Her work is lean and elegant and utilizes subtle color with layers of delicate markings. The work appears spare until you approach closer to find beautiful images buried in the layers of wax. Jane is another artists who has worked in a very defined style for sometime but continues to keep a fresh eye.
The other 3 artists are all new to me. The work exhibited by Tracey Adams in this exhibition is subtle and very oriented toward lush surfaces with pearly color and wispy markings. There was a catalog of her work in the gallery and I was disappointed to find that these were not for sale as I would love to have added it to my library.
Molly Cliff-Hilts work was larger than many of the pieces and I will say they were approximately 40" square. The compositions created a large open area in which stalks of plants were floating dead center and there were details of a 'landscape' around the edges of the picture plane. Very handsome and strong.
Last but not least was Mary Black. Mary's works were very unique in this group as they were heavily encrusted with colored wax and a total expression of what the medium can do when applied in a painterly manner. The work was abstract but also included 'hidden' images of recognizable objects.
All in all two fine exhibitions in an amazing facility. The galleries are large, well lit and very new. My one complaint about the exhibition spaces is that like many gallery spaces I have visited, the fire alarms were out on the wall in usable exhibition space. Several works were hung right alongside these panels so close that there was no way to view the work without including the alarms.
