10.11 "Kindred Spirits" at Clark University's Schiltkamp Gallery

In the most basic sense, the ten artists whose work is exhibited here are united by the shared use of an extraordinary medium ~ encaustic. Yet the fullness of the term KINDRED SPIRITS denotes an alliance of artistry that goes beyond material affinities.

Importantly, each of these artists is a contemporary practitioner pushing the conventional boundaries of painting or printmaking or sculpture (sometimes all three simultaneously) In the service of their formal and conceptual vision.

Encaustic, a blend of beeswax, resin and pigment, was first utilized by the ancient Greeks to waterproof and then embellish sailing vessels. It was adopted by the Romans to adorn ceramics and sculpture; later still, Egyptians used it to paint funerary portraits entombed along the Nile River basin. Each creative advance enriched the cross-cultural environment of Greco Roman Egypt.

Today, the artists displaying their work in KINDRED SPIRITS continue to employ encaustic in unique ways, and as such, carry on its venerable tradition of originality and innovation. This collection of artworks thoughtfully merges medium and message, from the metaphorical forward motion of David A. Clark’s emblematic monotypes, to Kim Bernard’s relief sculptures, which bear witness to the artist’s physical movement through raw beeswax castings. Similarly diverse in process though thematically linked, an exploration of time and transformation is evident in the photographically based work of Donna Hamil Talman as well as the densely striated sculptures of Laura Moriarty, each looking to the distant past for embedded pattern and connection. A contemplative view of history is presented in Marybeth Rothman’s found portraits, intuitively chosen and then veiled with translucent, ephemeral color.

Intense opaque hues are stacked within formalist Joanne Mattera’s paintings, the layers revealed by hand cut passages, reminiscent of a well-worn path or palimpsest. The process of discovery and reclamation is also expressed in Sue Katz’s found object sculptures, carefully composed scraps of detritus combined with earthen wax pigments. Equally mysterious and lively, Lisa Pressman’s improvisational marks loop through her gestural paintings as Miles Conrad’s biomorphic spheres scatter across the wall, their animated shapes hinting at unknown phenomenon.

And delicately balancing the practices of painting, printmaking and sculpture, Kathleen Lemoine Creates small worlds, diminutive landscapes that suggest the best of all possible places ~ familiar Yet exotic, remembered and imagined.

Come view the work of these KINDRED SPIRITS to see the myriad forms encaustic can take and the depth of meaning it can hold.

Artists:

Kim Bernard Maine

David A. Clark California

Miles Conrad Arizona

Sue Katz Massachusetts

Kathleen Lemoine Louisiana

Joanne Mattera Massachusetts

Laura Moriarty New York

Lisa Pressman New Jersey

Marybeth Rothman New Jersey

Donna Hamil Talman Massachusetts