VIRGINIA KATZ
Observations Toward Clarity
click on image for full view
September 10 – October
22, 2005
d.e.n. contemporary art is pleased to begin its fall
season with the debut solo exhibition of Virginia Katz,
opening September 10, 2005. Observations Toward Clarity is
an exhibition of work on paper that is a documentation of, and a collaboration
with, two of nature’s primary forces: wind and tidal movement.
The exhibition will include an installation of several oversized works
Katz refers to as “tidal cycle” drawings. In these drawings,
the size, color, and timing of wave and tidal fluctuations along the
Pacific shoreline, are documented in watercolor on rolls of paper. Spilling
off the gallery walls, the drawings are collectively shaped to the contour
of waves, echoing an actual surf movement. Each drawing was executed
over a range of time, from watching a full day’s tidal cycle to
intermittent recordings over a period of months, melding a scientific
observational methodology with the artist’s contemplative and
transformative nature. Through the course of the exhibition, the artist
will periodically add new tidal drawings as she completes them, resulting
in a continual change in the formation of the installation.
The exhibition will also include Katz’s “wind diagrammatic”
drawings, in which she uses the direct phenomena of wind to make lyrical
abstract drawings. By affixing pens to tree branches and positioning
paper of various sizes on the ground below, Katz allows the wind to
“draw” its own patterns. Variety of color and density of
line result from the artist’s choice of pen and paper, and the
unpredictable wind gusts. Spotted marks saturated with ink reveal a
lull in the wind, while the wind’s more active moments are evident
in areas covered with a gossamer network of lines.
Threads of Katz’s work reference models of art-making such as
plein-air painting, abstract expressionism, process art, and the school
of artists working directly in and of the natural environment. Yet,
her work is a distinctively less manipulative approach, employing nature
as both source material and collaborator, letting environmental forces
dictate the work’s final form. Through the process, the artist
seeks understanding and revelation via her own physical exploration
of the environment.
Born in Brooklyn, New York and later raised upstate, Katz now resides
in Orange County, California. She received her B.A. degree in Philosophy
in 1985, and her M.F.A. in 2004 from California State University, Long
Beach.
A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, September 10, from
5 to 8 p.m. Observations Toward Clarity is on view until October
22.
d.e.n. contemporary art is located at
6023 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through
Saturday, from 11:00 to 5:30 pm. For information or visual material,
please contact the gallery at (310) 559-3023 or info@dencontemporaryart.com
©2005