Saturday, April 19, 2008

Exhibition Statement

Wood Meets Paper was first imagined, produced and installed at the Pearl Street Gallery, New York, in 2006, and re-invented at Gallery 1, Madrid, in 2008. It evolved from sensing the gallery space as frames for exploring notions of form, light, scale and materials. Combining our experiences working with laminated wood and handmade paper this installation defines and extends the limits of these materials. Made from poplar plywood and handmade abaca paper, our work emerges within the bounds of the gallery but gently hints at spaces beyond its walls. It hovers playfully overhead, weaving itself into a network of undulating lines and circular shapes within a rich topography of closed and open spaces. They spill and flow like water or air currents, or perhaps connections in some fantastic neural mindscape. The forms follow each other in a delicate and joyful dance while a quiet melody resonates amid the lively geometries. In the shadows of these forms are also the echoes of our own voices, inviting viewers to leave gravity behind and lose their sense of time and direction within Wood Meets Paper. forms follow each other in a delicate and joyful dance while a quiet melody resonates amid the lively geometries. In the shadows of these forms are also the echoes of our own voices, inviting viewers to leave gravity behind and lose their sense of time and direction within Wood Meets Paper.

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Boris Curatolo

I studied painting and drawing with José López Comenar in Madrid, Spain. In 1986, I obtained a scholarship from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, where I completed a BFA with a concentration in sculpture in 1990. In 2006, I received an MA in Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. I have worked from my studio in Brooklyn since 1994.

My sculpture begins with an investigation of the physical properties of materials and the different ways they can be shaped, joined, combined or assembled. With this as a starting point, I find forms that express moods, gestures or concepts. I will often develop these forms through a series of variations, exploring different possibilities for their interaction and scale. My art is a constant reflection on the character of materials and the possibilities for their transformation into sculpture.

Mary Sullivan

I have been working in paper since the early 1980s when I first discovered the seductive qualities of pulp made from cotton rag and Japanese Gampi. During the intervening years I spent most of my time perfecting the methods of making high quality paper using a range of Western and Eastern papermaking techniques. Paper I made was used in paper products, bookmaking projects, papercrafts and artist’s paper that incorporated cotton linters, paint pigments, plant fibers, dyes and other materials. ‘Leftovers’ became my signature and my method. In recent exhibitions I explored the sculptural qualities of paper pulp using a layering technique of formed sheets of paper that followed the contours of the female body. Expressive and symbolic elements are suggested through the use of embedded materials and paper sculpting methods. My most recent work involves pulp spraying to create very large sheets of translucent paper made from Abaca, which I have used in the installation Wood Meets Paper with the wood sculptor, Boris Curatolo.