Michèle Landsaat, Busy City (Final State)
Recommended by Emma (Marketing & Communications Manager):
"Storytelling is paramount in Michèle Landsaat's works, which are created for narrative artist's books. The Busy City is a backdrop for one such story, and its whimsical frenzy draws you in to the imagined world. Landsaat creates a tapestry of details in the style of simplicity, layered with countless invitations to the viewer's curiosity. Viewed outside the context of an artist's book, the viewer begins to tell stories of their own about the characters and moments within. Busy City is a delicious opportunity to unleash the imagination."
Aoife Layton, Habitat
Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer & Content Publisher):
"Mezzotints hold a special place in my heart with their high contrast, rich textures, and visual softness. In Habitat, Layton effortlessly burnishes and scrapes out the folds and stripes of the circus tent and mirrors them on the zebra’s body. He sets us up to reflect on how we view and use animals and people that are strange or exotic to the common American crowd. Placing these two distinct symbols side by side, Layton points out the peculiar relationship that exists between wild animals, performers, human entertainment, and consumption of the exotic or 'other'. It begs the question of what or who are Americans harming in our unchecked need to be entertained or desire to fill a void in lack of interest in day to day life?"
Paual Barragán, Volcán Pichincha
Recommended by Paige (Collections Manager):
"For me, Ecuadorian artist Paula Barragán is a master of the everything-all-at-once style and Volcán Pichincha is an excellent large-scale example. This woodcut shows the artist's hometown of Quito on the hillside of the volcano. How does one capture a city in a volcanic eruption? With everything all at once. Barragán includes the people, the buildings, the cars, the dogs, crabs and birds. She uses text, boats and skulls, she compresses space and creates a ladder to the top of the volcano, smoke becomes arrows or faces in the sky. I have recently been thinking about Barragan's work since the New York Times published one of her works in April 2020 with her writing, ¿De quién es la culpa? (Who is to blame? or Whose fault is it?) about the pandemic and environment. In Volcán Pichincha as with the new piece, I see Barragán grappling with as many elements as possible to describe a moment or to understand why."
John Ross, Refinery
Recommended by Rebecca (Gallery Manager):
"John Ross was an important artist and publisher (High Tide Press) in the printmaking community and was instrumental to the development of the collagraph along with his wife, Clare Romano, and Glen Alps. Of the collagraph process, Ross once said, "From these ordinary materials, I can create city streets, mountains, canyons, pueblo dwellings, oil refineries, skyscrapers, and other constructions, either realistic or visionary." Refinery shows all that Ross accomplished with collagraphs in a beautifully balanced composition. The piece stays true to the industrial nature of a refinery while adding rich texture, sumptuous color, and engaging detail."
Liza Jones, Winter Dune
Recommended by Sam (Owner & Director):
"Liza Jones' Winter Dune is a color drypoint in which she exploits both the delicacy and strength possible with the drypoint process. She effectively captures the coast dune landscape alternating with marshy wetlands. Her mark making is convincing."
