The next stop during the Gallery Day at the Surface Design Association Conference was the AnArte Gallery. The exhibition was called Looking Through: New Work from Elise Deringer & Kelsey Viola Wiskirchen.

According to the conference program, “Memory, poetry, and landscape come together in this two-person exhibit that examines the internal self, the external world, and the space between.” This exhibit remained true to its description. It felt very intimate and young. Wiskirchen’s work was particularly powerful in its exploration of these things.

The majority of Elise Deringer’s work featured a combination of cotton and silk.

Renewal 1: Joy.

Renewal 2: Contemplation.

Renewal 3: Freedom

But some of the pieces did include non-traditional “fibers”. These pieces were composed of cotton, silk, and sand, although, I am not sure exactly how sand was used.

Residue #6 (Overflow)

Residue #9 (Why I Wake Early)

In researching Deringer’s art, I came upon this photo of her work being displayed at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Seeing this, made me think that her work is much more powerful when it is three dimensional. Unfortunately, we did not get to experience this at AnArte Gallery.

Kelsey Wiskirchen’s art blew me away.

I am constantly surprised by what is happening in the world of thread–not fabric, just thread. Wiskirchen first weaves a base layer. She then stablizes that base layer with a water soluable stablizer. She then stitches on these surfaces to create her work. Once the stitching is done, she removes the stablizers, and we are left with truly beautiful images.

Olivia Wade and Lizzie

A close up of the magic held within the piece.

There were two groupings of four small sketches. I am truly surprised by the amount of emotion she manages to express in each of these pieces.

Another large as life piece.

Wiskirchen frequently uses words to create the background of her larger work, but this was the first she had used her own writings as the basis for those words. On her website is a beautiful display of her senior thesis work along with short documentary about her process and inspriation. If you have the time, they are real visual treats.

05 Sep This entry was published on September 5, 2013 at 11:06 AM and is filed under Art in Place. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.