This exhibition features the work of the four artists awarded the Gallery Director's Exhibition Award in 2013 for the Modest in Scale juried exhibition. See below for more details about the Modest in Scale exhibition.

for more about the Modest x 4 artists, click links below:

Aram Han

Aram's website

Erin Paulson

Erin's website

Gary Voss

Gary's website

Wendy Kowynia

article about Wendy

There is not an online catalog of the Modest in Scale.

Click here to see images from the show.

Modest x 4

November 1 - December 14, 2013

Aram Han (Chicago, Illinois), Erin Paulson (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Gary Voss (Ft. Collins, Colorado) and Wendy Kywonia are the four recipients of the 2013Modest in Scale exhibition award.

They each clearly recognize that modestly scaled works dictate that the creator understands that, ultimately, size is irrelevant; that relevance is found in finding visual complexity and clarity on an intimate stage. As artists, they have agreed to step into intimacy and expect that we, as viewers, are willing to do the same. These four artists in particular, have work methods consistent with this invitation. Each in their own fashion has found a relationship with method and material that brings them ever closer to a meditative, connective way of being in the world.

Aram Han - Licked

Aram Han creates work in reaction to the hectic and often mindless pace of life. She makes ‘slow work’; she hand stitches. The work calls for tremendous diligence and discipline. It is a tedious process that, by her own admission, sometimes seems futile, this rthymic act of patiently build lines, images and surface, stitch by stitch. Han is interested in under-­-appreciated, invisible, and Sisyphean labor practices. Through the repetitive use of her materials she pulls upon social histories and meanings, utilizing them to create a personal mythology of materials.

Erin Paulson - Nebula 2 (detail)

Erin Paulson’s work also relies heavily on time-intensive processes such as the fiber techniques of embroidery and papermaking, printmaking and bookbinding structures. In addition to exploring notions of process as content, Paulson uses the element of labor invested as a metaphor to grapple with “our smallness in the vastness of the cosmos”. Her use of repetitive motion techniques can be seen as representative of human kind's endeavors, while simultaneously serving as reminders of an essential need for connection.

Gary Voss - 106.S(A)

Gary Voss’ vessel like works, created from a combination of ABSi plastic and encaustic, contain aspects of both sculpture and pottery. The pairing of rapid prototyping with the sensuous unpredictability of molten wax results in work that references both the human body’s outer shell and its internal complexities, the passage of light used as a critical formal element. Their thin exteriors have a translucence that both protects and exposes the encaustic interiors. In this work Voss joins a new form of industrial technology with a medium originally used in ancient Greece. He uses these materials to call into question the cultural significance of new industrial materials and techniques.

Wendy Kowynia - Iteration #10

Wendy Kowynia’s colorful woven wall pieces are filled with motion and color. Working with the oldest of manipulated fiber techniques, Kowynia pushes the traditional into a new way of working. To this end, she responds to the artists’ challenge of figure/ground resolution with a work method that uses loom techniques to create ‘ground’ and stitch, knot and weave structures to create ‘figure’. She recognizes that the act of making can attain ritual and spiritual status, and can trigger meditative experiences. For the act of making becomes a practice in and of itself.