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910 Santa Fe #15, Denver, Colorado, USA upstairs in the 910 Arts Complexin Denver's Art District on Santa Fe720.230.4566 • alicia (at) abecedariangallery.comOpen by appointment |
Links: online catalog of Daniel & Vicki Essigs work online catalog of Coptically Bound exhibit
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Daniel & Vicki Essig + Coptically Bound September 18 - November 1, 2014
Daniel and Vicki Essig live and work in Asheville, North Carolina, a region steeped in high-quality craft, populated with artisans focused on perfection and utilization of traditional craft skills alongside innovative methods and technologies. Although their work takes different forms, the Essigs share a reverence for quiet, small-scale natural artifacts such as shells, fossilized remains, seed pods and tiny animal bones. One has the sense that these objects, exquisitely formed and shaped by the rigors of nature, have been patiently waiting for someone to recognize and celebrate their inherent beauty. The Essigs do so, with skill, imagination and reverence. Nuanced with shallow textures, carved, painted, and layered, Essig's sublime surfaces appear softened by time. His unforgettable pieces challenge traditional ideas abut the medium as they straddle the line between book and sculpture." Vicki Essig is a fiber artist whose quiet, intimately scaled works provide meditative respite for both the viewer and the objects suspended between finely woven strands of silk. The works convey a captivation with light and translucency, with contrasts between the fragile and the strong. Vicki’s intent is to present the small and delicate as powerful and significant, relying on the inherent qualities of artifacts such as seed burrs. tiny animal vertebrae, grasses, scraps of antique printed imagery and text. Both artists work on an intimate scale; their work invites us to join in their probing of essences and secrets gleaned from objects with the patina of age. Coptically Bound above Ebb by Karen Hardy On view in the Reading Room are a selection of works curated by gallery director Alicia Bailey that utilize the coptic form. Coptic bindings are the first true codices, characterized by sections sewn across the spine. The technique makes the addition of a wide range of materials feasible, and this exhibit highlights many works that rely on the flexibility and adaptability provided by across the spine binding. The exhibition includes work by the following artists: Alice Walsh, Alicia Bailey, Bailey B Raha, Carolyn Shattuck, Charlene Matthews, Cynthia Colbert, Deborah Martin, Elsi Vassdal Ellis, Hilke Kurzke, Jamila Rufaro, Janice Fisher, Jayne Harnett-Hargrove. Jessica Fisher, Jonathon Wiley, Karen Hardy, Katya Reka, Kena Virginia Kitchengs Gomez, Macey Ley, Mado Reznik, Mark Hoppmann, Mary Beth Boone, Mary C Leto, Merike van Zanten, Pam Fortner, Peggy Johnston, Sammy Lee, Servane Briand, Sharon McCartney, Stephen Sidelinger and Susan Hensel. |