Umbrae | Arborum by Susie Protiva - Exhibition Catalog

UMBRAE | ARBORUM: susie protiva

AUGUST 7 - SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 www.harwoodartcenter.org

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UMBRAE | ARBORUM: susie protiva

Harwood Art Center August 7 - September 11, 2020

COVER: Susie Protiva, scrim_shadow, 2020

On March 13, 2020, in accordance with public health emergency orders, we announced Harwood’s building closure, ceased all in-person gatherings, deployed staff to work from home, and began pivoting our programs to continue mission-driven service to the 10,000 New Mexicans we engage each year. In this transition, we have made fundamental shifts in the content, strategies, and financial models we’ve refined over 29 years of rootedness in our public, physical, arts center, and we’ve shaped, tested and rolled out an array of new distance arts and exhibition engagements, and have many more to come.

As we contemplated how to adjust our exhibitions program, for a time when we cannot plan physical convenings (such as exhibitions or opening receptions in our galleries, which have been cornerstones of this program), we’ve explored countless ideas, and we’ve sketched out a revised framework that we believe upholds the core value(s) of the program and adapts best to the upsidedown of now.

Under the current guidelines, our August exhibiting artists, Chelsea Wrightson and Susie Protiva, were able to install their physical exhibitions in our galleries as originally planned. The exhibitions have been accessible to the public by appointment. All visitors to the gallery have worn face masks, practiced social distancing, and complied with all safety guidelines set forth by the CDC. To increase the reach of the exhibitions, they have been throughly documented and presented here in a comprehensive digital exhibition catalog.

Additionally, we are hosting a Virtual Reception & Artist Talk with Susie Protiva and Chelsea Wrightson on Zoom, Thursday, August 27 at 5:30pm. This event is free and open to all ages. Recordings of the Virtual Reception & Artist Talk will be archived on our website and accessible for anyone to watch.

– Harwood Art Center

UMBRAE | ARBORUM susie protiva umbrae | arborum by Susie Protiva in the Main Gallery is Protiva’s examination and meditation on the mutability of recollection, representation, and reconstruction of what is seen and not seen, remembered and forgotten.

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Susie Protiva, august 5, morning light, installation view 5

Susie Protiva, august 17, miscellaneous installation view

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Umbrae: Latin for shadow, but also for shade, a ghost image.

Arborum: trees, forest, also the elements of a ship made of wood.

For the duration of my exhibition at Harwood Art Center, I am installing and adding to imagery generated during a week spent in an aspen forest, as Artist in Wilderness for Wilderness Workshop in Carbondale, Colorado.

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Susie Protiva, install 3, August 4, installation view 8

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Susie Protiva, aspen grove with sheet 10

These images began in an aspen grove.

Wanting to isolate the shadows of the leaves, I brought a bedsheet into the woods and hung it up. This served to obscure the ground and understory flora while creating a screen to catch the silhouettes of the leaves. In this way the shadow shapes were flattened and simplified, and the matrix of the sheet is sometimes present, sometimes blanched from the image. These photographs were then manipulated further, printed on silk organza and kozo paper, then hung from the gallery ceiling.

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Susie Protiva, detail, work in progress, silk stitched to kozo

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Susie Protiva, detail, backside of printed kozo

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Photographs of the dappled light and leaf shadows, printed onto translucent silk, layered and hung to allow the viewer multiple points of view, will be the starting point for this installation.

Susie Protiva, august 4, in progress installation view 14

Susie Protiva, morning 15

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Chelsea Wrightson, Quarantine #6, 2020, graphite and colored pencil on paper, 11 x 7.5 inchess, $300 17

Susie Protiva, reading and thinking Previous Page, Left - Right, Top - Bottom: Susie Protiva, degradation of memory; scrim shadow 2; scrim_shadow 3; notched shado 18

Each day of the exhibition I am present in the gallery, responding to and expanding the imagery, incorporating text, tracery, and contemporaneous documentation of the installation as it evolves. This is my examination and meditation on the mutability of recollection, representation and reconstruction of what is seen and not seen, remembered and forgotten.

ow 1; shadow_fold 19

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Susie Protiva, the thinking wall

Susie Protiva, detail, silk over photo paper

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Susie Protiva, end of day, shadows come to play, in progress installation view 23

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Susie Protiva, dancing roots, installation view Chelsea Wrightson, a future full of yesterdays, 2020, oil paint, colored pencil, plaster of Paris, wood frame, 42 x 16 inches, $2500

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An early and formative visual experience occured when, at the age of four, I looked up into the high summer canopy of the maple trees in our back yard. Light both sharp and diffuse, simultaneously, filtered through the endless greens.

Spending time in the aspen understory brought this childhood memory back to the surface, bringing with it a remnant of that first sensation of astonishment. This installation is an ongoing inquiry into the mutability of memory, the inherent loss within the act of remembering, but also the narrative we weave into our recollections, how we reconstruct and recreate. In the dailiness of being in the gallery with the work, I am exploring a bit of the space between the phenomenon and and how we collect it into knowing.

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Susie Protiva, roots & salt come to play in the gallery, installation view 27

Susie Protiva, shadow | glow, inkjet on silk, 40 x 42 inches, $325

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Susie Protiva, moirĂŠ shadow, inkjet on silk, 30 x 40 inches, 2020, $325

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Susie Protiva, leaves, inkjet on silk, 42 x 41 inches, 2020, $325 30

Susie Protiva, variability 1, inkjet on silk, 43 x 41inches, 2020, $325 31

Susie Protiva, double shadow, inkjet on silk, 43 x 40 inches (two layers), $650 32

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Susie Protiva, variability of recollection, inkjet on silk, 54 x 84 inches, 2020, $650

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Susie Protiva, work in process, inkjet on kozo, thread, white carbon

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Susie Protiva, degradation of memory 2, inkjet on silk, 40 x 40 inches, 2020, $325

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Susie Protiva, shifting, inkjet on silk, 42 x 40 inches, 2020, $325

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Susie Protiva, collage, inkjet on silk and kozo paper, 40 x 38�, 2020, $400 38

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40Susie Protiva, work in progress, tracing paper with white carbon over photo

Susie Protiva, scrim | shadow 2, inkjet on silk, 42 x 42 inches, 2020, $325

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Susie Protiva, august 14, in process installation 43

Susie Protiva with umbrae | arborum

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susie protiva Susie Protiva’s art begins in the daily experience of living close to the not-built environment, walking and looking in the high desert.

Imagery and pattern, absorbed from the observed landscape, resurface in the studio in paintings, prints, or manipulated photos.

She finds the gap between the thing-as-it-is and the thing-aswe-know-it as a vast plain of possibility, where she is perpetually tracing around the edges, feeling a way into seeing.

Susie Protiva was born in Missouri, raised in northern Arizona, and now lives with her family at the eastern edge of the Rio Grande watershed in northern New Mexico, where they have built their home and studios off-grid. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico. Her paintings are featured at Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah, Spirit in Art Gallery of Madrid, New Mexico, have been included in the Albuquerque Museum’s annual ArtsThrive gala, and exhibited at the Harwood Art Center.

Her prints and artists books have been exhibited in Massachusetts and New Mexico. She was an Artist in Wilderness for the residency program at Colorado’s Wilderness Workshop in 2019. www.SusieProtiva.com

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ABOUT HARWOOD ART CENTER & ESCUELA DEL SOL MONTESSORI

HARWOOD ART CENTER’S GALLERIES are dedicated to providing exhibition, audience expansion and professional development opportunities to artists.

Harwood Staff curate four exhibitions annually; the remaining months are awarded to individuals and groups through a competitive application process.

Harwood, the outreach program of Escuela del Sol Montessori, is a creative center for community and the arts. We believe that equitable access to the arts and opportunities for creative expression are integral to inspired, passionate individuals and to healthy, vibrant communities. Participating at a grassroots level, we recognize and engage the arts as a catalyst for lifelong learning, social change and community development. We provide art education for all ages; community outreach projects and events; teaching and apprenticeship opportunities; and studios, exhibitions and professional development programs for both emerging and established artists.

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For 50 years, Escuela del Sol, an independent Montessori school, has nurtured self-discovery, social responsibility and passion for learning in our students.

Each day Escuela supports students from ages 18 months to 13 years on their real-world quests to excel academically and to develop the skills they need for meaningful, happy and successful futures.

Harwood and Escuela are dedicated to instilling a passion for lifelong learning, creative expression and positive impact on our world.

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WWW.HARWOODARTCENTER.ORG · 505.242.6367 · 1114 7th NW, ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87102