DEBORAH KAPOOR d u e
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DEBORAH KAPOOR d u e
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ABOUT ARTXCHANGE GALLERY ArtXchange Gallery is a contemporary intercultural art gallery that inspires cultural exploration, the expansion of global community and the exchange of ideas through art. We exhibit art from around the world that reflects the diversity of influences shaping the Seattle community and contemporary global culture.
DUE BELLE VOCI
ArtXchange Gallery presents, Due Belle Voci, a new exhibition of encaustic and mixed-media sculpture by Deborah Kapoor. At a time when we are physically separated, Kapoor’s series presents an intimate portrait of a family as seen through her role as a daughter, mother, and caretaker. Drawing strongly from Kapoor’s recent experiences caring for her ailing mother and raising a bi-cultural teenager, as well as sibling and other relationships, an intricate matrix of connections is formed. The title, which translates to two beautiful voices in Italian, references the exhibition’s underlying themes of music and family connection. Kapoor’s work blends unconventional uses of encaustic (wax), found materials such as flowers and family garments, and mixed media including latex, acrylic, and video projection. The artworks, which often hover in the balance between strength and fragility, evoke the alternating tenderness and tension that is inherent in all manner of relationships - daughter to one, mother to another – and how those relationships shift and change over time. Deborah Kapoor has gained international recognition in the encaustic community for her innovative use of encaustic wax as a sculptural medium. Often used as a painting medium, encaustic wax becomes a method of connection in Kapoor’s work, linking a wide variety of media through dipping, immersing, painting, and printing. Kapoor creates organic objects and installations inspired by universal themes — the body, motherhood, home, spirituality, nature, and aging. “Thinking in terms of visual poems,” writes Kapoor in her artist statement, “I look to distill what is profound about being human.”
Guardian, 2018 Fabric and wire 36 x 32 x 8 in
Bouquet, 2020 Faux flowers, dried violets, acrylic, and latex 7 x 5.5 x 2.5 in
Detail of Bouquet
“How do you describe what is contained in the human heart?� - Deborah Kapoor
Heartstrings, 2020 Paper, string, acrylic, and R&F Pigment Stick 4.5 x 5 x 3.5 in
Tending, 2020 Fiber, paper, clay, ink, mattress ticking, shoebox tissue liners, ink, encaustic, and R&F Pigment Stick 36 x 36 x 2.5 in Detail on the following page
“Recently, my son discovered an aria that my mother used to sing when I was a child. Duet is a slow-motion video projection on a pink tulle scrim of my son playing cello with my mother’s voice singing behind. They live far apart yet they are connected through music. This is a duet over space and time.” - Deborah Kapoor
Duet, 2019 Tulle and video projection 218 x 48 in
Luxury & Restraint, 2017 Antique fur collar, dried hydrangea petals, jewelry stand, syroco wall shelf 23 x 12 x 6 in
Tick Tock, 2020 Paper, oil paint-stick, mica flakes, and encaustic 10 x 20 x 2 in
“My Mother took pleasure in dressing well. As her disease increases, her wardrobe decreases. During my visits, I have found in her in a provided drab hospital gown. For me the gown has come to symbolize the unbearable weight of enduring physical and psychic horror. How do we care for our elderly?� - Deborah Kapoor
Albatross, 2019 Fabric, wire, latex, and acrylic 50 x 16 x 4 in
Lifeline, 2020 Dried hydrangea petals, acrylic, fabric, and audio recordings 6 x 7 x 2 in
Safeguard, 2020 Digital print on kozo, fabric, and encaustic 11 x 8.5 in
“I am in between different states of being: sleeping and waking. I inhabit this vulnerable space where I’m forced to negotiate the shift between being a mother, to being a daughter as caretaker simultaneously.” - Deborah Kapoor
Liminal, 2020 Clay, watercolor, encaustic, latex, and frame 10.5 x 9 x 1 in
Sisters, Not Twins, 2018 Fabric, paper, wire, faux fur, thread, moss, and encaustic 82 x 144 x 32 in
My Guardian Angels, 2020 Paper, ink, fiber, encaustic, tulle, faux coral, latex, and metallic thread 13 x 24 x 2 in
Folding Time, 2017 Clay, spray enamel, and R&F Pigment Stick 11 x 13 x 7 in
Detail of Folding Time
left to right: Collapse, 2020 Crackers, encaustic, chicken wire, faux flowers, fabric, and latex 21 x 13 x 5 in Pillar that Once Was, 2020 Encaustic transfer 16 x 11 x 1 in
Soft Tissue, 2017 Clay and encaustic 28 x 14 x 3 in
Detail of Soft Tissue
Fly Away Home, 2020 Thorns, branches, paper, faux flowers, Fosshape, gold leaf, fabric, moss, encaustic, and R&F Pigment Stick 36 x 36 x 2.5 in Detail on the following page
left to right: Lotus Heart, 2020 Clay, acrylic, faux flowers, moss, encaustic, latex, and frame 5 x 5 x 1 in
Gardens, 2020 Detail on the following page Clay, paper, moss, encaustic, latex, and frame 10 x 8 x 1.75 in
“In this work I’ve combined ceramic lotus flowers with moss and poured wax, to reference how we are all tending to the gardens of our relationships, especially when we’re spending time at home, focused on intimate things in our domestic lives.” - Deborah Kapoor
left to right: Lotus Heart, 2020 Clay, acrylic, faux flowers, moss, encaustic, latex, and frame 5 x 5 x 1 in Gardens, 2020 Clay, paper, moss, encaustic, latex, and frame 10 x 8 x 1.75 in Detail of Gardens on the following page
Persist, 2018 Paper, moss, and encaustic 9.5 x 4 x 2 in
“What Binds Us and Bliss are about my son, my mother and their relationship to each other. In What Binds Us, an image of my son playing cello is layered with transparent and semiopaque fiber elements revealing the music he loves so much. Music connects him to my mother, who was an opera singer. In Bliss, I’m imagining her in a state of being where she’s not troubled by the physical ailments of the present, in a more Nirvana-like state without suffering.” - Deborah Kapoor
left to right: What Binds Us, 2020 Digital print on silk, digital print on polyester, digital print on blanket, silk and polyester fabric 93 x 40 x 6 in Bliss, 2020 Digital print on organza silk, netting, antique Japanese fabric, and repurposed sari cloth 93 x 40 x 6 in
ABOUT THE ARTIST Deborah Kapoor is a Seattle-based artist who creates dimensional, haptic, mixed-media paintings, prints, sculpture and installations. In her work, Kapoor translates perceptual details of physical experience, examining the landscape of the body and sensual themes surrounding feminine embodiment. Kapoor’s interest in encaustic is heightened by the flexibility of the medium, pushing or stretching convention to incorporate materials and dimensionality that support the content of each body of work. Frequently she uses soft, natural materials such as fibers, threads, and cloth intentionally to reify the sensuous and the corporal. Kapoor has exhibited at M. David & Co. in Brooklyn, New York during Bushwick Open Studios, Tacoma Art Museum, Square Foot Art Basel Miami, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago), Trenton City Museum, the Crane Arts Center (Philadelphia), Kimball Art Center (Salt Lake City), Seattle City Hall, and in university and commercial galleries. Her work has been featured on the cover of Encaustic Art Magazine’s Spring 2019 issue,
and published in the magazines Fiber Art Now (2016), Surface Design Journal (Winter 2015/2016 issue) and the books Encaustic in the TwentyFirst Century (Ashley Rooney 2016), Experience Painting (high school art textbook by John Howell White, 2015), Authentic Visual Voices (Catherine Nash, 2013), The World Encyclopedia of Calligraphy (Holly Cohen Roochvarg & Christopher Calderhead 2012), Paper + Wax, Techniques for Combining Handmade Paper with Encaustic Paint (Michelle Belto 2012), and Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility (Daniella Woolf, 2010). Recent curatorial efforts include Tenacious, a show about perseverance at Suzanne Zahr Gallery, Navigate at the Tashiro Kaplan Building, and Intersections: natural, intuitive, intentional at Blakely Hall — about the crossover between nature and culture. In book form, Kapoor is currently coauthoring a book with Stephany Rimland, Professor of Art History, Harper College on the use of dimensional encaustic. Kapoor teaches painting and drawing at South Seattle College and instructs in demos for R&F Handmade Encaustic & Paint sticks. She has taught at Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Delaware Art Museum, Bellevue College, Columbia College, College of DuPage (Outstanding Faculty Award), Harper College, Kirkland Arts Center, Schack Arts Center, FEAST, Daniel Smith and Artist & Craftsman, Lawton Elementary School, KapKa Cooperative School, and The Peddie School, to name a few. She earned her MFA at the University of Delaware, and BFA at the University of North Texas.
Cora Edmonds Gallery Director Lauren Davis Assistant Director Summer Ventimiglia Client and Gallery Specialist Lauren Brown Gallery Assistant and Graphic Designer Cover: detail of Soft Tissue Back: detail of Soft Tissue This page: detail of My Guardian Angels Š July 2020 No part of this publication may be reproduced without consent from ArtXchange Gallery and the artist All images courtesy of the artist and ArtXchange Gallery
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