P A P E R P R O J E C T S
works on paper: contemporary interpretations by female artists
Paper Projects is a group exhibition featuring five female artists who each use the intimate material of paper as their primary medium.
Exhibited artwork reflects the scope of this material through distinct voices from Utah’s contemporary art scene including Amanda Lee, Anna Laurie Mackay, Elise Wehle, Lydia Gravis and Ya’el Pedroza.
August 7 - October 31, 2020
The Argo House
Ogden, UT
Seemingly fragile or impermanent, works on paper are often undervalued in the art world or overlooked by collectors, who give more clout to canvas and oil paint than paper and pencil. But this genre has become an art mode of its own, going beyond studies and studio experiments to encompass a variety of methods including painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, printmaking and beyond.
The intimate and immediate practice of working with paper cultivates freedom and innovation, as the artist may feel more allowances to experiment with this moldable material. Paper processes can also tend toward the meticulous, evidenced in Paper Projects by Elise Wehle and Anna Laurie Mackay’s hand cut compositions, or Lydia Gravis’ complex abstraction. Amanda Lee introduces the processes of screen-printing and lithography, while Ya’el Pedroza incorporates airbrush, acrylic paint and plastic in pieces that deal with the interplay of humans and nature.
Linking the artists’ work is the collective desire to present ephemeral moments, liminal spaces and felt experience through physical processes that are often meditative or repetitious. The all-female roster also speaks to the evolution of women in the art world, who, similarly to the presented medium, were long undervalued or overlooked in mainstream gallery and museum scenes and who are finally taking their place in the public eye through solo exhibitions or female-focused shows.
Amanda Lee
Logan, UT
Amanda Lee is a multi-media artist and poetic printmaking activist whose work pictorially explores ideas of intuition and non-rational knowledge. Using mechanical reproduction and digital media, Lee creates intuitive meditative marks that represent ephemeral moments as she seeks to depict “the space that fills a pause, the thing in between, be it emotional or physical, the space that many of us overlook on our way there from here.”
“Wayfinding is a record of an eight mile hike through newly deposited lava fields. Someone ahead of me had deposited small white pieces of coral in the all black landscape, offing knowledge to lead my way. The smaller pieces – such as Hold and Look Between the Rain - are punched and folded to look as if they are pages removed from a larger book. These images are a collection of the ephemeral made repeatable and durable through pictorial multiplicity, repetition of form, image, and looping.”
Anna Laurie Mackay
Salt Lake City, UT
Anna Laurie Mackay is a mixed media artist whose work reflects her emotional, psychological, and physical response to her surrounding environment. Treating paper as textile, the artist meticulously weaves, cuts and paints silk tissue to form dream-like perceptions of a remembered landscape. Her work for Paper Projects is directly inspired by the rosy, reflective waters of the Great Salt Lake.
“My work involves very slow and very deliberate marks and movements. Making these marks becomes a ritual. The marks, cuts, folds, weavings and sewing allow my hands to come to know, understand or remember a place. My hands have a memory. It is through making these works that I come to understand how I exist, how I dwell, and how I inhabit space.”
Elise Wehle
Orem, UT
Elise Wehle’s artwork revolves around the time-intensive act of cutting intricate patterns using a utility knife. As she cuts each shape and line by hand, her creative process transforms into a meditative act. Despite the patterns’ clearly defined edges, they are comprised of negative space and ultimately invisible, like the experiences they represent.
“I’m fascinated by the concepts of revelation, visions, and how spiritual experiences intersect with our physical environment. These incidents are difficult to explain and often disregarded, which is why I find them so intriguing. Using designs from illuminated manuscripts, architecture, and other sacred objects, I represent these experiences by cutting patterns into landscapes and portraits.”
Lydia Gravis
Ogden, UT
Lydia Gravis approaches mark-making as an empathic activity, a way to connect to the world around and the world within. Her graphite drawings are subtle and complex yet dominating in size, representing the overwhelming psychological spaces of human experience that are not easily defined, but that are undoubtedly felt.
“...(my process) is a radical act of sanity, imperative as I navigate the overwhelming nature of our contemporary world. I create colonies of marks and lines, and in my mind they become personified and assume individual behaviors… As I try to sort out reality, I create a new reality on paper. I eventually relinquish my initial intention of control, and it’s with this surrender that I get lost in an intuitive process that leads me into imagined realms and I come to realize that after all, a drawing inspired by the world doesn’t have to resemble it. This realization seems liberating, and the responsive marks begin forming a new language to communicate with a universe in which I feel absolute smallness, yet undeniable belonging.”
Ya’el Pedroza
Ogden, UT
Ya’el Pedroza’s artwork deals with the relationship between humans and nature in a spiritual, emotional and subconscious way. Her layered, dry brushed paintings juxtapose the scientific geology and innate spirituality of natural elements such as rocks and gemstones, depicting them with physical texture, bodily shape and an interior glow. In her latest drawings, she incorporates plastic as a symbolic gesture of how this man-made material is now integrated into our natural landscapes, connecting humans and nature in a less idealized way.
“My work deals with the interplay of humans and nature. It has always been the beauty, strength, and complexities of nature that have drawn me to it as a major theme in my work. I find myself conveying nature not as the victim of human interaction, but as a capable and prevailing entity."
Anna Laurie Mackay, Lake Variation
24” x 18”
acrylic spray paint, silk tissue paper
Elise Wehle, Manifestation 2
34” x 16”
pastel, graphite, hand cut paper
Lydia Gravis, Embracing the Chaos 1
10” x 7”
pen on paper
Ya’el Pedroza, Mitosis
24” x 30”
airbrush and acrylic on paper
Anna Laurie Mackay, Woven Sky
36” x 24”
acrylic spray paint, silk tissue paper
Elise Wehle, Inner Most
20” x 20”
hand cut collage
SOLD
Lydia Gravis, Embracing the Chaos 2
10” x 7”
pen on paper
Ya’el Pedroza, Soul Mates
24” x 30”
airbrush and acrylic on paper
SOLD
Amanda Lee, Hold II
11” x 14”
screen print, risograph, graphite
Anna Laurie Mackay, Interrupted Lake
30” x 24”
acrylic spray paint, silk tissue paper
Lydia Gravis, Complexities
50” x 38”
graphite, acrylic and chalk marker on paper
SOLD
Lydia Gravis, Embracing the Chaos 3
10” x 7”
pen on pape
Ya’el Pedroza, Sedimentary
10” x 8”
plastic bag and acrylic on paper
Anna Laurie Mackay, Lake Study
19” x 16”
acrylic spray paint, silk tissue paper
SOLD
Elise Wehle, Manifestation 1
34” x 18”
pastel, graphite, hand cut paper
Lydia Gravis
The Trajectory of Smoke and Mirrors
50” x 38”
graphite on paper
Ya’el Pedroza, Untitled
30” x 22”
graphite and ink on paper
Ya’el Pedroza, Crystals Fig. 2
10” x 8”
plastic bag and acrylic on paper
Paper Projects is a pop up exhibition presented in partnership with The Argo House, a community gathering space and collaborative work environment for creative professionals.
