BAC
Making Your Mark: On Paper Press Release
For the first time the Brooklyn Arts Council put out an open call
to our Artist Registry for a juried exhibition in our DUMBO gallery space.
Brooklyn based artists, Phil Benet,
Stephanie Brody-Lederman, Jonathan Gall, Anne Gilman,
Scott Henstrand, Colleen Ho, Greg Hopkins, Yoshiko Kanai, Jill Magi, Walter
Markham, Linda Marston-Reid, Karen McKendrick, Felicia Megginson,
Sarah Nicholls, Mia Pearlman, Christopher Rose, Donna Ruff, Ella Smolarz, Amy Tamayo, Alejandra Villasmil, Christopher
Walsh, Jeffery Welch and Rachael Wren create unique works on
paper utilizing a variety of mark making techniques and subject matter.
Scott Henstrand, Jill Magi, Sarah Nicholls and Donna Ruff employ language as their vehicle for production, each
approaching it from a different perspective. Henstrand’s drawings literally deal with morphemes, the
smallest grammatical unit of language, or partial phrases. These isolated,
charcoal images reflect Henstrand’s exploration of
identity through language, pointing toward the boundaries of text and
experience. Magi’s pages re-enact the inevitable exclusions and
inconsistencies in authoring, documenting, and storytelling history. In the
places where a narrative breaks down and where the composite takes over, Magi
makes them visible through acts of stapling, sewing, layering, peeling back,
taping, and writing by hand. Nicholls explores the limitations
of nostalgia and the distance between romanticized objects and their real
substance by integrating visual language with written language in an often
humorous and ironic fashion. Ruff creates disjointed
narratives of bits and pieces of text by tracing words onto handmade paper,
then burning away the space around them. This process of removal brings an
authority to what is rendered absent.
For artists Phil Benet,
Stephanie Brody-Lederman, Jonathan Gall, Anne Gilman,
Greg Hopkins, Elisabeth Smolarz, Jeffery Welch and Rachael Wren, mark making is their primary subject. With white oil
stick, Benet draws a rigid rhythmic
line that gives way to visions of vast negative space. Brody-Lederman paints the complexity
and beauty of the ordinary in opaque brushy layers of acrylic paint. Jonathan Gall combines blind line drawings with collage and text. Gilman assertively applies pencil, acrylic, dry pigment and medium onto Agave paper accentuating the brittle nature of the paper
from which she is inspired. Using graphite,
Though quite different in approach and outcome, both Colleen Ho and Walter Markham utilize specific
methodology as well as repetition to create their works on paper. Ho creates her marks by repeatedly ripping paper with a thumbtack,
documenting the passing of time. The result is an accumulation of shapes and
spaces representing visual patterns found in nature seen through a telephoto
lens or microscope.
Linda Marston-Reid,
Karen McKendrick, Felicia Megginson,
Christopher Rose and Amy Tamayo create their work
around social ideas; some pertain to women, like beauty and domesticity, while
others focus on the constructs and conventions of society itself. Through the
marriage of gouache and collage and the notion of structure via images of
houses and trees, Marston-Reid adds to the dialogue between the natural and the manmade world by
exploring the symbols of the social structure of society. McKendrick’s stitches on ledger
paper, reminiscent of the art of sampling, create what she refers to as an
emotional account. Megginson investigates notions
of beauty, sexuality and social identity by using the myth of Medusa as a
metaphor for the female psyche, especially the African-American female psyche.
Working methodically in ink and colored pencil, laying down overlapping circles
on vellum and Mylar, Megginson mimics the texture and
delicacy of hair, while also recreating its sense of volume and density. Rose’s drawings are based loosely around the ideas of riots and crowds.
Using images of protests, student gatherings, and riots found in Internet
search banks as a starting point, Rose breaks the images down to their basic
forms and colors, flattening the picture plane. Thus, suggesting the notion of
gatherings, as well as map making, digital technology, and mass media. With
markers in bright hues of pink, red and orange, Tamayo draws seductive images of fetish and addiction onto
doilies, blurring the lines women teeter as domestic and sexual beings.
Landscape and Cityscape bring inspiration to artists Yoshiko Kanai, Mia Pearlman, Alejandra Villasmil and Christopher Walsh. Kanai is a sculptor who uses her pencil drawings to express feelings of
her place in this vast world. Kanai’s drawing Exterior is an atmospheric
scene of
The Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery is located at
Contact Sally Sturman (ssturman@brooklynartscouncil.org) or Courtney Wendroff (cwendroff@brooklynartscouncil.org)
by phone, fax or e-mail for further information including artist resumes, bios
and images.
Founded in 1966, the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (BAC) is a service
organization dedicated to helping artists, arts organizations and community
groups promote and sustain the arts. BAC is unique in the borough in that it
assists artists – both amateur and professional – in all disciplines. Major
areas of service include BAC’s Community Arts Regrant Program, Professional Development Seminars for the
Arts, Arts in Education, BAC Folk Arts, the Printmaker’s Portfolio Project and
the BAC International Film and Video Festival.