May 13 – 17, 2020
2020년 5월 13일 – 17일
Flex Space B, CICA Museum
Progressions
My art questions what a drawing is and how it can affect thinking. Works are composed of marks that referencing the artist Avis Newman, are “signs of thought”. Time and space are central to this investigation to expand the concept of drawing. Influenced by Eastern philosophy, I aim to create between these entities. It is these that experimentation happens and the medium opens to what it can be.
Traditional drawing is a rendering of a three-dimensional subject on a two-dimensional surface. In my work, it becomes a tool to expand how I can experience the medium and thinking. I am interested in an organic approach that moves fluidly between dimensions and mediums. The diverse approaches taken; installations, spatial constructions, works of paper, photography, and blogging; end up informing and redeveloping each other over time. The interaction of these invites unusual formal relationships and dialogues that propel works into the unknown.
Current Series
The Progression(s) and Shuffling(s) series explore a dialogue between dimensions, media, and time to expand how to see and experience drawing.
Conglomerate (Progressions) are photographs of geometric constructions made in response to light and shadow movements. The term progressions relates to successions of musical chords produced over time to stir harmonies. These constructions change in form in relation to shifting sunlight over the course of several hours. Shadow lines were recorded to mark movements. Different stages of the activity are photographed. The time each image was taken is noted in titles.
The works on paper, Progression(s), are reductive still lifes of Conglomerates. They pull out the darkest darks and lightest lights, revealing shadow pathways. Varying degrees of information are given in each work to decipher form. This removes them from their original context and opens the images to new avenues of interpretation.
Shuffling(s) works on paper are created in response to concepts explored in theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time. Rovelli writes about time at the quantum level where the past, present, and future are blurred. Shuffling(s) are generated from multiple overlays of digital images of Conglomerates that were taken within seconds of each other. They are drawn on top of each other with line. The resulting shapes are painted in various shades of gray. Forms fractures in between time. Unforeseen harmonies and alignments emerge in from the process.
Nicole Lenzi’s work questions what a drawing is and its link to thinking. She takes a multi-media approach to expand the concept of drawing that includes installations, photography, and works on paper. She has exhibited in numerous galleries, museums, and non-profit art spaces including District of Columbia Arts Center, The Delaware Contemporary, The Delaware Art Museum, Vox Populi, VisArts, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, the Lodge Gallery,and Northern Illinois University Art Museum. She will participate in the upcoming Donald M. Robinson Photography Biennial 2020 at the Southern Alleghenies Art Museum. Lenzi has had residencies at Soaring Gardens, the Villa Montalvo, and the Vermont Studio Center. She has maintained a blog on contemporary drawing, Expanded, since 2015 and is based in Baltimore, MD.
Nicole Lenzi, “Conglomerate No 2” (2018)