Kate Oh Gallery opens its door to the exhibit, Nexus, new prints by Ali Norman, Keigo Takahashi, and Kristine Virsis, curated by Contemporary Tibetan Artist, Pena Renzin.
The exhibit brings together three emerging printmakers from New York, California and Japan, using a hybrid of contemporary and traditional techniques.
“Ali Norman, Keigo Takahashi, and Kristine Virsis each have a unique process of building their prints, layering different methods and images to achieve rich, textured surfaces. The works embody a deep understanding of the history of printmaking – from Japanese woodblock prints to European botanical etchings – yet each artist has forged their own way of working with these materials that allows them to express their complex forms.”
“Virsis’ ornate prints of tangled flora and fauna begin as paper cutouts, are hand painted, andthen silkscreened. Takahashi, a Master Printer, uses color and shape to create geometricstructures that feel both spatial – like folded paper – and entirely flat. Norman makes layered etchings that invoke scientific illustration, sacred geometry, and religious iconography.”
“All of the artists float their images on a blank ground. The works are less illusionistic scenesthan growths, nuclei, or samples under a microscope. There is both a centering and an in-finite quality to this type of framing – a kaleidoscope folding inward and outward from themiddle.”
“Norman, Takahashi, and Virsis each chop up and refigure life in their own way. The beautyof their work is in the careful balance of chaos and control, randomness and arrangement, difference and interconnection.”
The exhibit ‘Nexus‘, curated by Pema Renzin, will be on view to June 4, 2018 at Kate Oh Gallery, 50 East 72nd Street, 3A, NYC