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October 26, 2006
“LUMINOUS DEPTHS”: SIX WOMEN EXPLORE ANCIENT ART OF ENCAUSTIC PAINTING IN WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY EXHIBIT
The ancient medium of encaustic, or pigmented wax, as employed by six women artists, is the focus of an exhibit in the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne from October 30 through December 1, 2006. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
“Luminous Depths,” curated by Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn Galleries, features works by, Rachel Friedberg, Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi, Gail Gregg, Megan Klim, Joanne Mattera, and Sylvia Netzer. The exhibit is part of the Feminist Art Project, a national initiative designed to celebrate women’s contributions to art.
According to Einreinhofer, encaustic—also known as hot wax painting—is a medium originally used more than 2,000 years ago that is enjoying new popularity among contemporary artists. “It lends itself to artists working toward various objectives and in different styles including lyrical and geometric abstract painting, painting with some recognizable imagery, and work of a conceptual nature,” she says. “It is a medium that can be transparent and translucent and might be characterized as something open ended, encouraging experimentation. It can animate a surface and cause it to glow with monumental grace. It is versatile and durable and, most of all, it is beautiful.”
It is also a medium that poses great challenges for an artist. Artists use heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added; the wax is then applied to a surface such as wood or canvas. A variety of tools–-crock pots, irons, electric fryers—are used to keep the wax fluid and extend the amount of time they have to manipulate the material. It is a medium requiring much time to build up the layers of wax.
A narrative element is present in the ironic and humorous paintings of Rachel Friedberg. “Her ‘Tie Series’ is a perfect example of the artist’s ability to take a complex subject and create, through a simple line drawing, symbols we can readily identify,” Einreinhofer explains. On exhibit as part of the “Tie Series” are four works of four panels each, all rendered with a limited palette of black, white and the primary colors. In “Butterfly Ties,” the subjects flit across the surfaces, while “Spats” takes its name from the casual fellow in the first panel whose spats echo his bow tie.
Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi thinks about her paintings as a kind of diary. “The artwork I create is autobiographical in nature--a way of searching for a better understanding of my feelings and thoughts as well as a visual diary of my experiences,” she explains. Her paintings contain both organic and geometric forms. In “Hidden Truths,” two rectangles containing organic forms float in front of a ground as solid and forbidding as a brick wall. The artist allows some of the brick-like elements to float in front of the large rectangles thus creating a spatial ambiguity that is telling.
Gail Gregg’s work seamlessly merges the ancient medium of encaustic with the 20th century concept of the found object. Her work begins with a “found” physical structure of geometric form, most recently cardboard box dividers and the forms used in packing electronic products. Using the packing forms as a base, Gregg begins the process of applying layers of wax. The brush is traced across the surface, the gesture repeated, the layers are fused, the surface refined. The layers are built up over time, simultaneously obscuring and reinforcing the underlying structure. The result offers a literal materialization of the underlying formal structure, while creating on the encaustic surface counterpoints of density and transparency as light is absorbed and reflected.
Megan Klim’s paintings are linear configurations. First she builds the delicate wax surface, the stage on which inscriptions rendered in ink play out. “Wax is natural, luminescent, and can be either opaque or glossy. For me it is a physical covering. With some of these pieces, there are many, many layers of glazed color. The wax is brought to a glowing, translucent sheen.” The image-making is very much about the process; the artist builds her images with a calligraphic mark-making system, a continuous chain that cascades across the wax surface.
In her series titled “Mudra,” Joanne Mattera practices what she calls “hand yoga.” This series of paintings is created by a buildup of multiple layers of wax drops. “I came upon the concept for this series by chance when I discovered that dots of wax formed around me as I painted,” Mattera says. “There was something cosmological about the buildup of the drops, a universe in miniature on my worktable.” She adopted the accidental paintings and began to repeat the process with intent, developing specific ways of holding the brush in order to create and control the drips, ways that seemed to look and feel like a Mudra, a symbolic gesture made with the hand and fingers and employed by yoga practitioners.
Sylvia Netzer is interested in form and surface. Her forms are hand-built clay, and her surfaces are saturated with candy colors, rich and warm and seductive. “Encaustic is the right material for me to use because of its color, texture, and luminosity,” says Netzer. The “Baby Barry Family” of sculptures on display are part of a larger installation called “Miasma Morph” that is about early evolution, primal, primitive, biological forms and the artist’s early psychological development. The sculptures, suspended from the ceiling, seem to communicate with each other, adding a performance aspect to the work.
The exhibit is one of three shows on view concurrently in the Ben Shahn Galleries. “More Than Meets the Eye: Insight into the Artistic Process,” on view in the East Gallery, explores how artists imagine, recognize, and bring their art to fruition; the exhibit is curated by Sandy DeSando. On view in the Court Gallery is “Merrill Wagner,” a one-person show of the artist’s painted works.
This exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Ben Shahn Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print handouts are available. For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University, 973-720-2654.
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