Image: Collection: Nest Building by Sharon McCartney
(MALDEN - August 10, 2006) - - artSPACE@16 is pleased to announce its 35th exhibit entitled: From Two to Three Dimensions: Prints into Books curated by Stephanie Mahan Stigliano. Stigliano has served on the Malden Cultural Council, was co-producer of “Gallery Spotlight” for Malden Access Television for two years, and is a member of Boston Printmakers. This group show, is open from September 9 thru 30, and will feature prints and artist's books by seven Boston area artists: Marcia Ciro (Watertown, MA), Mary McCarthy (Boston, MA), Sharon McCartney (Belchertown, MA), Lisa Olson (Belmont, MA), Annie Silverman (Somerville, MA), Stephanie Mahan Stigliano (Malden, MA), and Janine Wong (Milton, MA).
Stigliano elaborated on her exhibition concept, "During this age of cyberspace many of us long for tactile contact when seeking information. The turning of pages, the feel of an embossed letterform in paper, the smell of a leather binding; these are some of the sensual pleasures of reading. These seven artists address various conceptual aspects of the book while using a variety of techniques and materials. Moving beyond the traditional forms, each creates unique works of art in book form. During the production of an artist’s book, the creator works in different roles: designer, artist, writer, printer and publisher."
"Many of these artists also create prints. Often the two-dimensional work serves to develop ideas and images for the pages within the book. The artist can dissect an idea and break it down through the proofing process, which is a way of taking periodic prints from the developing plate or block. In the making of a print, the artists’ decisions along the way are made visible. Often variations on a theme reveal aspects of the finished product such as: technique, structure, color, relationships of text to image, etc. Every part is designed before an edition is published."Seven participating artists
image: work by Marcia Ciro (Watertown, MA)
Marcia Ciro uses photography to record and react to the world around her. The imagery she creates can rarely be taken at face value; rather, it is used as metaphor to tell stories through juxtaposition and content. Ciro often works with a series of images, which lead naturally to the narrative and sequential properties of the book form. Her subject matter focuses on our environment and the stratagems we devise to control it, as well as our value systems — how we assign merit to things, time, and life.
The artist’s books of Marcia Ciro are included in national and international museums and library collections. She teaches at the Art Institute of Boston and at various workshops. A co-founder of the group Boston Book Arts, Ciro also planned, organized and developed meetings for the past six years. Boston Book Arts, a group of approximately eighty members, meets once a month for critiques, lectures, exhibitions and workshops. She lives and works in Watertown, MA.
Image: work by Mary McCarthy (Boston, MA)
Mary McCarthy is an artist who makes books. These works of art are all made of paper collage and/or various printing techniques. Using paper and ancient symbolism she creates a series of images which tell new stories. She treats them as sculptural objects with many moving parts and tactile qualities. It is her intent to tell visual nonlinear stories, wanting the viewer to consider the colors, textures, symbolic images, placement and movement of turning the page.
Mary McCarthy was born in New York and went to William Paterson College in New Jersey where she earned a degree in Education and Art. She moved to Massachusetts in 1974. Here she taught in public schools for a few years and then spent fourteen years at Phillips Academy teaching photography and bookmaking. In 1992 she decided to give her full time attention to making art. Currently McCarthy lives and works in Boston’s Fort Point Artist Community. Her art is included in numerous private and public collections nationwide.
Image: work by Sharon McCartney (Belchertown, MA)
A life-long passion for elements of the natural world, her source of sanctuary, wonder and personal rhythm, is infused in Sharon McCartney's work. Collecting natural objects provides her with a vocabulary of images and surfaces; birds, wildflowers and insects are collaged within layers of surface pattern, surrounded by markings of both personal and universal languages. Ephemera, bits of old textiles and other embellishments-are incorporated into her work, as she alters their exact context, yet invites the character of these materials to remain. McCartney is interested in drawing connections between antique ornament, weathered surfaces, and the cycles of organic regeneration.
Detail: Blest Foreboding, Wall Piece Book Construction on vintage ruler—Four Panels, Mixed media pieces, 14 x 24"For Sharon McCartney, art begins on walks through the woods, fields and meadows near her home. Her subjects are ephemeral wildflowers, birds, insects, animals and plants, found in the New England woods, and her work is about her relationship to the natural world. She is influenced by of both Asian and European art with natural themes, and from antique needlework, spiritual relics and vintage educational tools. McCartney's work has been shown and collected in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. She now lives in Western Massachusetts, where she also teaches workshops in collage and book arts.
Image: work by Lisa Olson (Belmont, MA)
The work of Lisa Olson is based on a synthesis of tangents—memory, history, classical myth, fairy tales and dream imagery—juxtaposed and infused with a sense of absence, loss and fragility. She works with traditional printing techniques, including intaglio and letterpress, combined with digital imagery and mixed media collage. She began making books because of interests in handcraft, in creating artwork that is intimate, and a desire to combine text and imagery. Although she considers the book her primary artistic form, she often turns to drawing, printmaking and collages to uncover and explore ideas.
After working for several years in mixed media sculpture and installation, Lisa Olson began making artist’s books in 2001. After moving to Belmont, Massachusetts in 2003, she has established her own letterpress studio, Parula Press. Olson grew up in southeastern Michigan and received a B.S. in Microbiology (1979) and a M.F.A. in Mixed Media (1995) from the University of Michigan. Her books are in collections across the country, including the Universities of California San Diego and Los Angeles, Long Island University, Brown University, The University of Washington and the Boston Public Library.
Image: work by Annie Silverman (Somerville, MA)
Annie Silverman considers herself a word nerd. Books, reading and the nuances of language are central touch points in her daily life. As both a writer and a visual artist, she uses the physical stuff of language as material to work on. Altering existing text with water based media and rescuing words from discarded books is an evocative process. Being the horoscope sign Gemini: Twins however, she has an equally strong nonverbal attraction to the colors, textures and narrative possibilities in multiple plate woodcut printmaking, where purely visual images allow the audience to finish the creative loop by fashioning their own story.
Annie Silverman has been working with artist’s books and experimental relief printmaking for the past sixteen years. Her Junior Instructor Series was exhibited in the Boston Drawing Show in 2004. In 2005, one of her woodcut prints won a purchase prize for the PARKSIDE SHOW at the University of Wisconsin, Kenosha. Her prints and unique books have been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally. She has taught at Massachusetts College of Art for over fifteen years, and given workshops at the Penland School of Crafts, Bennington College, and Pyramid Atlantic.
Image: Work by Stephanie Mahan Stigliano (Malden, MA)
http://www.vampandtramp.com
Stigliano wants the viewer to be able to hold the art in hand; tactile work reaches people on a different level than art behind glass. She creates boxes, books and prints: silkscreen, etching, letterpress and woodcut. Recently she has experimented with combining woodcut and traditional women’s arts of quilting and embroidery, printing and embellishing transparent fabric. She often incorporates found objects transforming them into vehicles for text and imagery. Bottle caps, broken mirrors, and scraps of rusted steel find new life as pages of alternative structures she labels books.
Stigliano teaches visual arts at Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA, and throughout the Northeast. Her prints and artist’s books are included in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Houghton Library of Harvard University, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Museum for Women in the Arts. She has exhibited at Mobilia of Cambridge, MA.; Barbara Gillman Gallery of Miami, FL, PROJECT of Wichita, KS, and Society of Functional Art of New York, NY. In 2005, she was awarded a residency in printmaking at Round Top Center for the Arts, Damariscotta, ME. She had a solo exhibition at Pearl Street Gallery of Chelsea, MA in 2006. Stephanie will be showing her work in MALDEN Contemporay curated by Sand T will be held at Gallery at Elm Street in Malden from Sept 9 - Nov 12, 2006, and participating in Window Arts Malden in Sept 14 thru 30, 2006.
Image: Work by Janine Wong (Milton, MA)
Janine Mei-Chiao Wong is a multi-disciplinary artist working in the various media of artist’s books, printmaking, painting, architecture, and design. She explores relationships that emerge through layering and juxtaposing found objects and images. Fascinated by the graffiti she saw on city walls, trash from the streets, and other forms of debris she found, the artist states, “The things we throw away can tell us as much as what we keep and hold precious.” Using a combination of techniques and materials, she creates books that serve as self portraits within a certain time and place in her life.
Janine Wong is an architect, graphic designer and book artist who received her MFA from Yale School of Art. She currently teaches Design and Artist’s Books at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her work is represented in several collections including the Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond and Brown University, University of California Santa Barbara. She is a recipient of a Regional NEA award and was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.
This exhibition is supported in part by the LEF Foundation’s Contemporary Work Fund. It also received in-kind support from the Artists Foundation and the artist-volunteers of artSPACE@16. For more information please visit www.artSPACEat16.com.The 35th Exhibit IN THE NEWS - visit http://www.artSPACEat16.com/archive.htm
