Paper Spring Exhibition

November 30, 2018 - January 12, 2019
Capacity 3 Gallery, Guelph, ON

Paper Spring exhibits decorative and narrative work that has paper as its base medium, art that springs forth from paper. This includes a series of "tree motif" papercuts, heavily inspired by the Wycinanki tradition in Polish Folk Art, a selection of original pages from Babcia, an ongoing historical memoir in comic form which aims to rebuild my connection to my late grandmother, cut short by immigration and Alzheimer's, and Inheritance, a 3-dimensional papercut comic about preserving culture in times of conflict and immigration.

“Paper Spring” also represents the struggle against Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). November and December can be the toughest months of the year. Darkness dominates, creating space for all the dark parts inside of us to grow to prominence and flourish. Depression, anxiety, self doubt, and anguish take a more powerful hold. There is something good about this process, the cyclical movement of season and light and psychological change. It can be useful to sit in the dark and look at our demons. But undeniably, it is difficult. This installation aims to provide a brief respite from this challenging process, to create a feeling of blooming spring in the gallery, in the middle of the darkest time, underground.

Tierra Herida, Printmaking from the Americas

October 18 - December 30 2018
OPEN Centre for the Arts, Chicago, IL

OPEN Gallery presents the Tierra Herida Exhibition with 50 International Printmakers from the American Continent with the objective of making visible the problems of mining in the Americas, generating a debate that provokes consciences and actions. The history of this region is closely linked to mining. From colonial times to our present, labor exploitation, the repression of social movements and environmental damage have gone hand in hand with this industry. Recently, large-scale extraction projects have increased with adverse consequences for the environment and the communities where they are carried out. The opposition to mining has grown in an organized way but also the violence with which it tries to silence those voices. As a result, Latin America has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for defenders of human rights and the environment.

Gallery presenta la siguiente Exhibición de 50 Artistas Grabadores del Continente Americano con el objetivo de visibilizar la problemática de la minería en las Américas generando un debate que provoque conciencia y acciones. La historia de esta región está estrechamente vinculada con la extracción minera. Desde tiempos coloniales hasta nuestro presente la explotación laboral, la represión de movimientos sociales y los daños ambientales han ido de la mano con esta industria. Recientemente, los proyectos de extracción a gran escala han aumentado con consecuencias adversas para el medio ambiente y las comunidades donde se llevan a cabo. La oposición a la minería ha crecido de manera organizada pero también la violencia con que se trata de callar esas voces. Como consecuencia, América Latina se ha vuelto uno de los lugares más peligrosos en el mundo para defensores de los derechos humanos y el medio ambiente.

No to Mining, Yes to Life - Marta Chudolinska, 2018

Zero Hour

June 8 1953

Others emerge from underwater eruptions, bringing to the light of day a movement from the lowest depths. Some rise slowly; some disappear and then return, leaving us no time to annex them. These two kinds of islands, continental and originary, reveal a profound opposition between ocean and land.

Magnetics

June 9 1953

Continental islands serve as a reminder that the sea is on top of the earth, taking advantage of the slightest sagging in the highest structures; oceanic islands, that the earth is still there, under the sea, gathering its strength to punch through to the surface.

Piloting

June 10 1953

We can assume that these elements are in constant strife, displaying a repulsion for one another. In this we find nothing to reassure us. Also, that an island is deserted must appear philosophically normal to us.

Mariner’s Maps

June 11 1953

Humans cannot live, nor live in security, unless they assume that the active struggle between earth and water is over, or at least contained. People like to call these two elements mother and father, assigning them gender roles according to the whim of their fancy. They must somehow persuade themselves that a struggle of this kind does not exist, or that it has somehow ended.

Days with the Sun

June 12 1953

In one way or another, the very existence of islands is the negation of this point of view, of this effort, this conviction. That England is populated will always come as a surprise; humans can live on an island only by forgetting what an island represents. Islands are either from before or for after humankind.

Teignmouth Electron

June 13 1953

In the ideal of beginning anew there is something that precedes the beginning itself, that takes it up to deepen it and delay it in the passage of time. The desert island is the material of this something immemorial, this something most profound.

COMICS & BOOKS

PAPERCUT

PRINTMAKING