online show
TRANSPARENCY
online exhibition curated by Patrice Lorenz
The term transparency holds a multitude of layered meanings. Openness, accessibility, a much-used term of late in our social and political discourse where it is often called upon in service of its exact opposite, or binary, obfuscation. It possesses both literal and metaphorical applications.
This exhibit connects work by artists that have explored several interpretations of transparency: in each individual artists’ work, transparency is used to conceal, reveal, veil or extend a narrative.
The artwork in this exhibit was selected, or gleaned, from online social media platforms. The work was posted by the artists over a period of several months during the 2020 pandemic, a time of social distancing and masked interactions.
Artists:
Beth Caspar, Robin Factor, Laura Sue King, Patrice Lorenz, Amy Masters, Mary McFerran
Beth Caspar
Although my work isn’t about transparency per se, I’ve often employed it. To me it suggests temporality, tenuousness, or the enigmatic, which is in contrast to the controlled, structural nature of my work. That contrast provides a visual tension that keeps things interesting—for me and hopefully for the viewer.
Laura Sue King
Multiple layers of wet-on-dry watercolor washes are strategically painted in tightly drawn concentric circles until the pigments become uncomfortably saturated. This density, always at the center of the paintings, muddles transparency.
Patrice Lorenz
Figures have recently returned to my drawings and paintings. The mountains fields and streams that surround and inspire me have become the stage for unexpected and imagined visitations.
Amy Masters
During this time of quarantine, the image of home and shelter felt appropriate. The addition of figures as onlookers, not necessarily belonging to the structures but not divorced from them either began to resonate. I especially liked the idea of the figures being transparent, almost ghost-like, inhabiting this world I was creating on the painted surface.
Mary McFerran
My process is transparent in these collages. The combination of torn hand made paper, fabric remnants and chalk markings share the picture plane in compositions that rely on color to hold them together.