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“Paper Cut”
is a group show at Zg Gallery focusing on four artists’ exploration of
the almost otherworldly space beyond the picture plane. Each artist
has revealed a curiosity about the hidden realm that exists behind the
two-dimensional space of a sheet of paper. By incorporating shadow
and voids with shape, form, line and color; positive negative spatial
relations are altered, figure foreground is subverted and the illusory
depth of the picture window is ultimately challenged. |
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Molly Briggs
presents “a surface layered with illusions of space: physical space,
historical space and the space between distinct yet entwined areas of
human inquiry.” Her “Cloud Studies” are ethereal works created using
paint and pencil on cut paper. Broad strokes of high-key florescent
pink and olive green paint are used alongside translucent shades of
light blue and grey to convey a sense of buoyancy and transition. The
optical magic of these colors, combined with the depth and shadows of
the cut voids, produces an illusion of weightlessness. Rendering
these cloud forms in complex and unlikely color combinations, her
intuitive experimentation with logic and whimsy results in an
unearthly beauty. Briggs states, “My work always comes out of an
interest in how things are made, including objects and art, as well as
natural and man-made systems in the world. And so here attention is
paid to how the physical object is made: the drag of the brush, the
touch of the pencil, the specificity of cutting holes in the paper,
the way the forms intersect – the rules by which the overlapping
occurs. Heightened attention is paid to subtle, simple forms. Clouds
are ever-present, ever-changing, ordinary and sublime. The paintings
represent the abstract, multi-layered experience of thinking. Here
they stand for a practice, a thought-process, as well as the physical
phenomena of clouds themselves. The spiraling shape comes from
traditional Chinese ink painting – a trope of a cloud.” Molly
Briggs received her MFA from Northwestern University, in
Evanston, IL, and her BFA from the
University of
Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. |
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 Elizabeth
Buhr
uses her childhood recollections of rural life on a ranch as silage
for her imagery. “Calling upon the memories of riding horses,
watching my uncle compete in amateur rodeo, branding in June and
making hay in August, I quilt together these images in the drawings.
My drawing practice is an investigation of the flatness of cut paper,
the depth achieved through layering images and the figure/ground
relationship between the negative cut and the positive surface of the
paper. The endeavor is to make work that implies fragility by
piercing the surface plane of the paper as well as weaving ornamental
pattern into, then out of the images. Patterns used in the drawings
are a reference to western-tooled leather and tack decoration. The
drawings’ carved-out narratives are both a visual puzzle and a
reflection on my memories and experiences of my Grandfather’s ranch.”
Elizabeth Buhr received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy
of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and her BFA from Saint Mary’s College,
Notre Dame, IN. |
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Stacza Lipinski
states, “I want to celebrate. I want to create something joyful,
silly, and pretty.” Toward this end she uses tissue paper – a common
party decoration material – and creates a giant bundle of Pompons and
an installation of what she calls “Edges.” Lipinski’s edges are made
by the same process used to create paper-doll chains, but she replaces
the doll figure with semi-recognizable shapes like table legs, lamps
or trees and applies these lines directly to the wall. “By
overlapping the tissue paper edges, the original shapes change and
entirely new shapes are perceived in the negative space. The same
effect happens with the mass of Pompons. Each sphere has a
different edge and when one overlaps another they create new shapes
and silhouettes. In both pieces the celebratory mood is
accentuated by the bright colors and the large amount of space they
cover. I want ‘Edges’ and ‘Pompons’ to celebrate shapes, the fun
of color, and the excitement of many things in one place.”
Stacza Lipinski received her MFA from the Ohio State University in
Columbus, and her BFA from the
University of
Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. |
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Steve Stelling’s
multi-layered, multi-colored “net-like” works on paper are created by
cutting grid-based patterns into sheets of painted paper, but the
grids are not uniformly perpendicular. “I have cut these window-like
openings on angles that distort the grid into directions that are
suggestive of linear perspective. What results is a mild friction
between the suggestion of an illusionistic picture space and the
actual voids and solids of a paper network, which alternately invite
and bar one’s passage through the surface of the picture. Caught
within these nets, are images based on my surroundings (patio
furniture, man-made lakes, broken party favors, domestic interiors,
etc.) I have simplified them by eliminating surface details and
sabotaging their proportions. These painted images act like a hinge,
swinging alternately to support and contradict the cut pattern. In
some instances, the cuts follow the contours of an image implying
volume, while elsewhere an image may dematerialize in the cut patterns
that run a course of their own. I orchestrate these contradictions
aiming to prolong the solid/void oscillations; making a space that
breathes (and wheezes and coughs) right along with us, absorbs and
expels our gaze.” Steve Stelling received his MFA
from the Ohio State University in Columbus, and his BFA from Northern
Illinois University in DeKalb. |
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