Opening Reception: Friday, September 30, 2016, 6- 9 pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, noon–6pm and by appointment
Organic Encounters presents work from 2015–2016 c3:initiative and Pulp & Deckle Papermaking Residency artists Ellen George, Laura Foster, Tyler Peterson, and Ryan Woodring. Culminating from their experiences in the Pulp & Deckle studio, each artist utilized handmade paper as a medium to create new works that present ideas central to their art practice.
Organic Encounters considers the transformation of material to propel the medium of paper beyond its familiar use as a substrate. The process of papermaking is one of both strategic intent and material intuition. With no rigidity in process but an inventive appreciation for materialist ideals, Organic Encounters brings together disparate works that are sculptural in form but conceptual in methodology. The results present themselves as commentary on the natural world, the unstable value of objects, the mutability of biological forms, and notions of memory that are dually fluid and tangible.
Under the tutelage of Pulp & Deckle, the artists experimented with a variety of woodfree materials (including abaca, cotton rag, natural dyes, and locally sourced plants and vegetables) to create bodies of work concerned with paper's pliable nature and capacity for layering.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Gallery Walk-Through with exhibiting artists,
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 6:00 pm
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The c3: Papermaking Residency was established in 2014 to engage artists with little or no experience in hand papermaking, and offer them an opportunity to learn the craft and stretch the limitations of what the medium can do. Provided with instruction, guidance and technical assistance from a professional papermaker/artist at Pulp & Deckle studio, residents create and exhibit new work outside their usual area of practice. Upon completion of the studio residency year, a group exhibition is held at c3:initiative or a partnering location.
The residency focuses on illuminating possibilities within the medium of papermaking and encourages experimentation, risk, research, and collaborative learning. The group exhibition highlights hand papermaking as a contemporary art medium.