Exhibitions
Opening Reception May 10, 5-8 pm (by RSVP only) Open to the Public May 19, June 2 11-6pm
Curated by Pema Rinzin
Nexus brings together three emerging printmakers from Georgia, New York, and Japan using a hybrid of contemporary and traditional techniques. The works combine pattern and geometry with organic, natural forms to create mesmerizing, stratified worlds.
Ali Norman, Keigo Takahashi, and Kristine Virsis each have a unique process of building their prints, layering different methods and images to achieve rich, textured surfaces. The works embody a deep understanding of the history of printmaking – from Japanese woodblock prints to European botanical etchings – yet each artist has forged their own way of working with these materials that allows them to express their complex forms.
Virsis’ ornate prints of tangled flora and fauna begin as paper cutouts, are hand painted, and then silkscreened. Takahashi, a Master Printer, uses color and shape to create geometric structures that feel both spatial – like folded paper - and entirely flat. Norman makes layered etchings that invoke scientific illustration, sacred geometry, and religious iconography.
All of the artists float their images on a blank ground. The works are less illusionistic scenes than growths, nuclei, or samples under a microscope. There is both a centering and an infinite quality to this type of framing – a kaleidoscope folding inward and outward from the middle.
Norman, Takahashi, and Virsis each chop up and refigure life in their own way. The beauty of their work is in the careful balance of chaos and control, randomness and arrangement, difference and interconnection.