Intense Concentration

Curated by Scott A. Sherer, PhD

Janet Chaffee Judith Cottrell Kris Jones Darice Polo Albert Wong Daniel Zeller Hong Chun Zhang

January 13 - February 14, 2010

INTENSE CONCENTRATION January 13 - February 14, 2010

The University of Texas at San Antonio UTSA Art Gallery Scott A. Sherer, PhD, Gallery Director Curatorial Assistant: Jacqueline Edwards Photography: Courtesy of the artists Design: Cornelia W. Swann

Š 2010 UTSA Art Gallery The University of Texas at San Antonio.

All rights reserved.

Copyright of all artworks depicted remains with the artists.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction.....................2 Janet Chaffee.....................5 Judith Cottrell.....................8 Kris Jones...................11 Darice Polo...................14 Albert Wong...................17 Daniel Zeller...................20 Hong Chun Zhang...................23 Exhibition Checklist.....................25

Albert Wong Beyond Illusory Space 019, 46� x 34�, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 2005

Drawing may be a process of discovery, method of

organization, investigation of possibilities, and/or exercise of creative imagination and play. Drawing can extend from the representational to the invented and reflect an infinite array of styles, methods, and materials. In our contemporary (post)modern context, we continuously consider and reconsider multiple inspirations and objectives; multiple methodological approaches; multiple historic, present, and future relationships; and multiple interpretations in multiple contexts. In diverse ways, Intense Concentration demonstrates our fascination with the physical character of objects of perception, the inherent illusion in any representation, and the instability of any determination of significance.

Albert Wong’s series, Beyond Illusory Space, extends trompe l’oeil traditions with investigation into basic elements of drawing practice. Trompe l’oeil is the optical illusion of the representation of three-dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. Translating from the French as “trick the eye,” viewers admire the technical virtuosity of the artist’s skills, but trompe l’oeil is also reflection into the character of creative argument based on truth claims and the suspension of disbelief. Drawn images of paper seem to be folded and cut and appear as the background for the depiction of a variety of objects. Twigs seem to pierce paper and masking tape seems to be strong enough to adhere folded paper airplanes.

From the foundation of realistic likeness, Wong demonstrates the perceptual and intellectual structures through which we understand the material character of elements in our world.

Darice Polo considers the reality of photographic discourses to represent objects and experiences from one historical context to another. Photography transforms complex information into a specialized framework and creates the possibility for both the literal and conceptual reproduction of meaning.

Photographs circulate beyond the time of their creation, instructing and influencing new viewers. Polo’s drawing 2

practice is an investigation of the constructed character of our reflections of lived experience. Old family photographs are the foundation for engaging with the trajectory of the past as it lives in the present.

Janet Chaffee’s starting point is the intricacy of lace, and from small samples, she renders the relatively flat but inherently three-dimensional knots into expansive patterns of intersecting lines. While the work both respects the history of women’s craft traditions and holds subtle commentary on the effects of modernization as home industry has become so secondary to mechanical manufacture, Chaffee’s work emphasizes the activity of drawing as meditation. Her objective is not verisimilitude but demonstration of the processes through which we creatively engage with historical artifacts as inheritances, models, and points of departure.

While unique experiences and special materials like photographs and lace can inspire contemplation, even the most mundane elements of daily life can prompt significant trajectories of reflection. Both consciously and subconsciously, normative structures of understanding can falter and the real can give way to the surreal, to influences that may lie beneath a surface or to what may extend into unexpected associations. Hong Chun Zhang explores dimensions of thought that begin from actual experiences.

Her large-scale drawings of loosely braided hair directly reference the relationships among Zhang and her sisters, but the fantastic scale of the work suggests diverse associations of familial correspondence and individuality, beauty and excess, physical presence and transitory memory.

Though drawings may begin with reference to specific situations and aspects of the natural world, the act of drawing itself is a process of original creation. Daniel Zeller mirrors the repetition that exists in natural forms, and his practice is evidence of the discoveries that occur through 3

commitment to his craft, like the advanced skills used in creative calligraphy. Organic forms may grow with some irregularity but they nevertheless may possess an internal logic. Similarly, Zeller creates a variety of forms with lines that evoke a range of structures from the microscopic to the topographic. His drawings are disciplined investigations that engender imaginative invention.

In the modern period, emphasis on self-criticism and investigation into the ways in which discourses function distinguish intellectual and creative endeavors, and artists have often considered the histories of objects and interpretations as well as the formal characteristics of various media. Kris Jones approaches drawing as opportunity to integrate scientific, historic, psychological, and spiritual interests and inspirations. Evoking the processes through which new subject matter generates research and innovative analysis, Jones’s fields of color and delicate lines activate the relationships between the intuitive and the deliberate.

Coinciding with the increasing emphasis on the production of new kinds of information and technologies of reproduction and communication, experiments with abstraction generate conceptual and aesthetic possibilities. Judith Cottrell restricts herself to the use of gel ink in fine, arcing lines, but in so doing, she is able to create variable tonal fields that animate the surfaces of flat panels. Through relatively simple marks, zones of light and dark emerge, and avoiding the distractions of cultural references, her drawing insists upon a pure form of engagement.

The artists in Intense Concentration explore through the realities of works of art as stand-alone objects and, simultaneously, as reflection on a range of external referents and as generator of new meaning.

- Scott A. Sherer 4

JANET CHAFFEE Inspired by vintage lace fabrics, Janet Chaffee renders intricate patterns on large sheets of paper. She pays tribute to the original meticulously crafted textiles with carefully drawn lines, taking a craft that was originally made by hand and now by machine, back into the hands of the artist. Her works encourage the viewer to meditate upon the repeated motifs and their transformation into overall abstraction.

Safety Net not only depicts a lace pattern but also refers to the connected circular designs often used in quilting.

Chaffee draws the knotted threads that join each sunburst to another, a practice that is as painstaking as stitching fabric by hand. The large, open surface of the paper allows for a light, almost translucent character in the work.

The repeated loops in Graphite Threads are made up of thousands of thin, textured strokes, creating a composite

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that communicates the delicacy and softness of lace.

While the craft she honors has been performed for ages, Chaffee’s drawing honors and locates broader frameworks as personal engagement. She creates “a conversation between the old and the new,” as the drawing speaks to many generations of artists and their ever-evolving work.

Janet Chaffee Images: (left) Safety net (detail), 7’ x 4’5”, graphite on paper, 2009; (above) Graphite Threads, 6’ x 3’9”, graphite on paper, 2007

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Janet Chaffee Image: Stave, 7’ x 4’5”, graphite on paper, 2008

JUDITH COTTRELL Expressive yet deliberate, Judith Cottrell creates drawings of fine detail and unified atmosphere.

Gel ink allows for the manufacture of a “thin, crisp line without troublesome bleedings.”

Delicate lines on the bases of wood panel or fiberglass sculpture interact to produce dynamic form. In these works, each stroke relates to the one placed next to it, making the whole composition alive with movement.

In sweet corn, Cottrell does not draw any vegetable, but tiny arabesques of ink gather and disperse, producing a large cloud of lines and negative space. This technique allows the flat surface of the work to appear three-dimensional,

Judith Cottrell Images: (left and above) sweet corn, 84” x 84” x 3”, gel ink, latex paint on wood panel, 2009

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creating gentle waves that seem as if they could almost rise up from the panel’s surface. A detail of the work allows the viewer to fully appreciate the intricate balance created by the artist’s application of each line.

In the sculptural work plat, Cottrell has laid alternating stripes of solid beige color between areas of layered strokes of gel ink. While the solid areas create a smooth surface, the different concentrations of ink suggest texture and multi-dimensionality. The soft curves of the sculpted form echo the shape of the drawn strokes placed upon it.

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Judith Cottrell Image: plat, 12� x 40� (dimensions vary), gel ink, fiberglass, latex paint on wood panel, 2009

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KRIS JONES Inspired by the scientific and the spiritual, Kris Jones looks to his multi-faceted background to create drawings that are both highly detailed and yet visually restrained. Crossing the boundaries of discipline, the artist presents work that is as calculated as scientific experimentation and as graceful as mystical visions of the divine. He also uses numerous forms of media in each composition, further communicating the artist’s need for a diverse basis for expression.

I Do The Things I Wanna combines the fluidity of watercolor as well as the sharpness of ink lines. While allowing the paint to drip down from a broken circular form, the artist also grounds the work with fine, deliberate strokes of ink. The tiny bubbles and lines that come together atop the broad wash of paint give an aspect of control in an otherwise freely-flowing medium.

Kris Jones Images: (left and above) Lascoix, 50” x 38”, coffee, tea, watercolor, ink and wax on paper, 2006

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Evoking the ancient cave paintings of Southern France in his work Lascoix, the artist lays down a light, brown background that reminds the viewer of the aged cave walls. Masses of tightly scrawled lines and circles combine to represent the very act of drawing, and the work becomes a study in the human psychological and mystical instincts that move us toward creative expression.

Kris Jones Image: I Do The Things I Wanna, 50� x 38�, watercolor and ink on paper, 2007

DARICE POLO In her drawings of family photographs, Darice Polo explores the continuously changing nature of experience and memory. Each time we recall and reflect upon any particular event, our thoughts inherently rely upon accumulated significance. Polo recognizes the paradox of our framing of fluid time. In her drawing practice that is based upon re-considerations of family photographs, she demonstrates the active processes of our attempts to create meaning in the slippery circumstances of our histories.

Fela’s Visit (1952) depicts an intimate moment before Polo was born. Though faithfully rendering the facial

expressions, patterned fabric, and other environmental details that are found in an old family photograph, Polo ultimately changes subtle elements and animates the pleasures of loving kinship.

Darice Polo Images: (left) Liberty Island 1958 (4), graphite, 6” x 10”, 2009; (right) Liberty Island 1958 (5), graphite, 6” x 10”, 2009

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DARICE POLO

Liberty Island 1958 consists of a group of drawings inspired by a series of snapshots taken on a family outing. In Polo’s work, the iconic image of the Statue of Liberty rises in the background above adorable, smiling children who are not only represented as they were at that moment in their lives but with hints to the adults they would become and the memories of childhood. While Polo locates the boys in time, giving much attention to the spaces above the figures’ heads through gradations of blacks, whites, and grays, she actively reassembles the character of historical progression.

Darice Polo Images: (left) Fela’s Visit (1952), graphite, 26” x 18.25”, 2006; (above) Ruperto (1926), graphite, 8” x 12.75”, 2000

ALBERT WONG Using watercolor and ink, Albert Wong creates works of trompe l’oeil, the genre that “tricks the eye” in which realistic illusions of three dimensions are created in two-dimensional media.

His representations of folded and taped sheets of paper, torn Chinese scrolls, and paper airplanes are sharply rendered, and at times extend beyond the boundaries of their frames.

Facts of materiality and dimension are challenged as the artist plays with the various manifestations of objects and their representation in two-dimensions.

Manipulating light and shadow in delicate compositions, Wong creates opportunity to consider the beauty of objects and to reflect upon the character of our engagement with the elements of our environments.

Beyond Illusory Space 020 depicts a tri-folded Chinese scroll pierced by five twigs, each appearing to cast a dramatic shadow upon the decorated paper, and in Beyond Illusory Space 021, Wong investigates the possibilities of basic techniques of creasing, cutting, taping, and sketching that are foundational methods of art making.

There is a keen sense of balance in these works, as each drawn item exists in relation to the others in the composition. Though they can stand as individual parts due to Wong’s careful representations, the delicate organization into a whole is what makes each work unique.

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Albert Wong Images: (left) Beyond Illusory Space 023, 46” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2005; (above) Beyond Illusory Space 020, 46” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2005

Albert Wong Images: Beyond Illusory Space 021, 46� x 34�, watercolor, charcoal, graphite on paper, 2005

DANIEL ZELLER Daniel Zeller compares the execution of his drawings to calligraphy, where perfection is attained through repetition. His patterned works consist of repeated forms, giving the impression of mathematically constructed, organic matter. Echoing the ordered chaos of nature, the artist presents imagined worlds and organisms that seem to develop and evolve spontaneously, and yet each line is drawn deliberately to complete the whole composition.

The striped patterns in Acquired Infiltration create folds that evoke the texture of living tissue. The amoebalike form looks as if it could generate new growths and eventually reach beyond the boundaries of the frame, yet the artist has carefully placed it within the white space. Just as a scientist studies the inner-workings of microscopic organisms to understand the whole being, the artist acknowledges each line within his intricate system, allowing the viewer to appreciate the personality of the drawn “creature.”

Daniel Zeller Image: Acquired Infiltration, 16.5” x 14”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009

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The artist is inspired by a number of familiar images and forms, and among these are topographical images. In Inconclusive Byproduct, the long lines that connect the three bodies of color mimic the look of rivers, as do the short arteries that are drawn out from them, each heading in a different direction toward the edges of the work. The electric tones of teal, red and orange confirm that this is no map of an earthly site but a glimpse at the world of the artist’s imagination.

Daniel Zeller Image: (above) Split Connectivity (detail), 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2007; (right) Inconclusive Byproduct (detail), 30” x 37”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2007

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HONG CHUN ZHANG

Hong Chun Zhang creates charcoal drawings of long hair on larger-than-life-sized scrolls. With nearly each strand crisply articulated and with deep shadows and radiant sheen, Zhang’s work could be described as falling into the category of realism; however, the manipulation of scale pushes the work into the realm of the surreal. The artist invites the viewer to engage with her work as she challenges ideas of power, gender, and reality.

These themes, along with a representation of the artist’s personal relationships, are present in Three Graces. The two outer scrolls represent the artist and her twin sister, with their older sister at the center. The artist draws the gentle twists, loose braiding, and natural contours of the hair as echoes of individuality as one might expect in conventional portraits.

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Born and raised in China, Twister corresponds to the environment surrounding Zhang’s current residence in Kansas. Relatively unknown in Zhang’s birthplace, tornados are certainly surreal events for anyone who encounters them, regardless of the frequency of past experiences. Zhang’s drawing adopts the appearance and volatility of a tornado as a tightly wound tendril with wisps lifting up, as if they could unravel at any moment.

- Jacqueline Edwards

Hong Chun Zhang Images: (left) Three Graces (left and right panels), charcoal on paper scroll, 36” x 96”, 2009; (above) Twister (detail), 36” x 96”, charcoal on paper scroll, 2009

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EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

Janet Chaffee Graphite Threads, 6’ x 3’9”, 2007

Stave, 7’ x 4’5”, 2008

Safety net, 7’ x 4’5”, 2009

Judith Cottrell sweet corn, 84” x 84” x 3”, gel ink, latex paint on wood panel, 2009

plat, 12” x 40” (dimensions vary), gel ink, fiberglass, latex paint on wood panel, 2009

Kris Jones Lascoix, 50” x 38”, mixed media: coffee, tea, watercolor, ink and wax on paper, 2006

I Do The Things I Wanna, 50” x 38”, watercolor and ink on paper, 2007

Roots, 100” x 72”, pen and ink on paper, 2006

New Abstraction, 32” x 42”, ink on paper, 2007

Acorn, 14” x 11”, ink on paper, 2008

Pillar of Cloud, 14” x 11”, ink on paper, 2006

Darice Polo Fela’s Visit (1952), 26” x 18.25”, graphite, 2006 Theresa (1948), 18” x 12 3/8”, graphite, 2001 Ruperto (1926), 8” x 12.75”, graphite, 2000 Liberty Island 1958 (1-5), 6-5/8” x 10”, graphite, 2009

Albert Wong Beyond Illusory Space 002, 25” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2000

Beyond Illusory Space 016, 34” x 46”, watercolor on paper, 2003

Beyond Illusory Space 019, 46” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2005

Beyond Illusory Space 021, 46” x 34”, watercolor, charcoal, graphite on paper, 2005

Beyond Illusory Space 033, 18” x 14”, watercolor on paper, 2008

Beyond Illusory Space 006, 34” x 25.5”, watercolor, gouache on paper, 2002 Beyond Illusory Space 009, 34” x 25”, watercolor, gouache on paper, 2002

Beyond Illusory Space 017, 34” x 25”, watercolor and gouache on paper, 2008

Beyond Illusory Space 020, 46” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2005

Beyond Illusory Space 022, 46” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2005 Beyond Illusory Space 023, 46” x 34”, watercolor on paper, 2005 Beyond Illusory Space 024, 17” x 14”, watercolor on paper, 2005

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Embedded Toxicant, 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2008

Inconclusive Byproduct, 30” x 37”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2007

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Daniel Zeller Acquired Infiltration, 16.5” x 14”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009

Externalized Congruency, 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2007 Implosive Remnant, 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009

Indirect Imperative, 16.5” x 14”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009 Integrated Solution, 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009 Morphological Impasse, 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2009 Split Connectivity, 13.5” x 11”, ink and acrylic on paper, 2007

Hong Chun Zhang Three Graces (triptych) (left) 36” x 96”, (middle) 36” x 100”, (right) 36” x 96” Charcoal on paper scroll, 2009 Twister, 36” x 96”, charcoal on paper scroll, 2009

(Cover) Hong Chun Zhang, Three Graces (middle panel), 36” x 100” charcoal on paper scroll, 2009 (Inside cover) Darice Polo, Theresa (1948), 18” x 12 3/8”, graphite, 2001 (Inside back) Daniel Zeller, Embedded Toxicant, 13.5” x 11” ink and acrylic on paper, 2008

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