“…A duality bordering on contradiction lurks about the edges of a Briar Craig exhibition, Accidental Poetry being no exception. His pieces raise questions, and only half-heartedly suggest clues towards answers. They ask us to examine the relationship and the separation/space between form and content, between media and message, between art and gallery space, between the personal and the public, and between viewer and art.

It is typical, when approaching “printmaking” in a gallery setting, to move in close to the work, nose-to-glass as it were, in order to better read the fine marks, layers and intricacies of the piece. While Craig’s prints are certainly intricate, the extensive layers of translucent colour, tactile surface qualities and myriad nuances and subtleties generated by the photographic process uncharacteristically lead the viewer to step back – to take in a broader view of the work and perhaps to seek a context that distance might provide…” 

– excerpt from Accidental Poetry – exhibition essay by Loren Spector

“…In Reclamation, accomplished American artist Curtis Bartone presents us with a collection of recent works consisting of 18 masterfully executed etchings and lithographs. The works comprise narratives that offer astute and often tense juxtapositions of nature’s flora and fauna with manufactured human artifice. While some works uncover a sense of beauty in this apparent disharmony, a tense and foreboding sense of loss underscores his work, highlighting that wilderness has changed from being a real pristine place to a kind of distorted fiction.Through the works presented in Reclamation, Bartone encourages us to consider difficult questions about our apparent biased and arbitrary classifications of nature that drive our efforts to exert control over it in an attempt to fit the natural world into a human-centered paradigm…” 

– excerpt from Curtis Bartone: Reclamation – exhibition essay by Tracy Wormsbecker

“…Combining artistic tradition with contemporary mythos, Wendy Tokaryk’s Exempla examines spirituality in a morally ambiguous age.Inspired by Albrecht Durer’s moral allegories, the collection uses color and movement to evoke a tranquil, meditative mood, coaxing the viewer into moral contemplation.Though graceful and understated, the collection shares with Durer’s work a rich symbolism; through gentle iterations and soft, natural tones, Exempla leads the viewer through a process of spiritual discovery.

In the collection’s multi-print pieces, the viewer sees the same theme repeated in several forms.The shapes are organic, reminiscent of sunbursts, plant cells, organs rendered in gentle strokes.The colors are soft yet ripe; warm, yolky yellows, blush pinks and hushed, minty greens create a spring-like palette, suggesting an awakening or rebirth – something on the cusp of discovery…

– excerpt from Exempla – exhibition essay by Nicole Boyce

“….Many artists allege a philosophical status for the meanings of their works. It‘s easy to do in artist statements, and you can’t blame artists for trying. After all,good work that is also compellingly theorized by its creator remains the ne plus ultra of the more stellar exhibitions. Since contemporary modes of art criticism long ago eschewed affect in favour of ontology, and since the reports ofTheory’s demise are not so much greatly exaggerated as they are a kind of desperate, wishful thinking, we will continue to see some artists’ statements clogged by abstruse language and abortive argument, tacked onto work that bears few traces of the claims made for it.

You will see precisely the opposite of this state of affairs in a show by visiting Portuguese artist Mariana Moranduzzo entitled “Transmutation of Being.” She offers an artist’s statement that I hope most viewers read after seeing (as I did) her etchings, woodcuts, and drawings on paper. The statement, read after, will most likely evince thinking congruent with your own…” 

– excerpt from Mariana Moranduzzo-Static Processist – exhibition essay by Mario Trono

“…Undeniably echoing the Barque exaggerations of past Japanese prints depicting actors from the Kabuki theatre, particularly those of the artist Sharaku (fl. 1794-5) whose wood block prints depict contemporary actors in character conveying a sense of drama by distortion. Hiratsuka’s figures seem to announce or celebrate particular performances, or portray emotions of the heart and body but with a contemporary update and twist. His actors are also spicy and taunt with tensions of desire and temptations. Set within luscious metaphorical landscapes, forbidden ripe fruit is offered, presented and indulged upon, venus fly traps and pitcher plants mirror in the participation of the carnivorous consumption and one can not help but to feel caught up in the indulgence and even perhaps excesses of life. They fill tightly cropped spaces, adding to the   heightened intensity of their depictions of human conditions.

There is also a bridging that happens in his prints; a bridge between the east and the west where traditions of the eastern past do not over shadow them being firmly rooted in Hiratsuka’s western reflections and surroundings. Hiratsuka’s use of contemporary western dress: the vests, short flirting skirts and clinging dresses articulate current fashions of today and speak of a global merging of cultures…” 

– excerpt from Yuji Hiratsuka: Hybrid Figures – exhibition essay by Carrie Phillips-Kieser