Point in Time: Ann Gardner at Winston Wachter, Seattle

Mosaic Art NOW’s 2010 cover artist, Ann Gardner, is exhibiting new works at the Winston Wachter Gallery in Seattle, WA now through April 21st.  Once again, we are enchanted by Gardner’s soulful, elegant and uplifting sculptural forms with meticulously mosaicked surfaces.  Gardner has told MAN:

Whether I create a sculpture for a private or public commission, I am interested in the same issues:  I want my work to elicit an emotional response, such as celebration, quietness or calm, and facilitate a connection to that response for the viewer. 

In Points In Time, Gardner presents some works smaller in scope than her well-known architectural installations – she calls them Lyric Drawings.  There is something achingly personal about about these mosaic “doodles.”  It is as if Gardner is sending hand-written messages into space, letting light do the talking for her.

From the Winston Wacher website:

Winston Wächter Fine Art is also pleased to present Point in Time, our third solo exhibition with artist Ann Gardner. Northwest artist Ann Gardner is known for her unique sculptures that use hand cut, tinted and etched glass to create elegant mosaic-covered forms that challenge the physical boundaries of the medium. In Point in Time, Gardner continues her captivating exploration of light, volume and pattern with stunning results and an uncanny ability to capture a sense of movement and fluidity.

From an essay on the exhibit by art consultant Pablo Schugurensky:

The works in Ann Gardner’s current exhibition at Winston Wachter in Seattle, Point In Time, reflect her long exploration of light, volume, and pattern, revealing her mastery of those elements. She has pursued this exploration through various approaches and methods, creating sculptures that challenge or disregard their own physical boundaries, underscored by a keen use of contrasting color, for something she has called a “simple truth” – distilling the character of an artwork to its essence.

They appear to recede and protrude, suggesting a body much larger than the place each actually occupies. Gardner explores the dimension of light and reveals our perception of it, fragmenting and reconstituting it to affect our experience of space and how we occupy it.

A hanging sculpture, Drawing (light), which Gardner calls a “drawing” (as in drawing in space), presents her inquiry into the line and how it can gain character from bends and folds. The feeling of this sculpture is indeed that of a three-dimensional drawing, and its expression reminds the viewer of handwriting, a perception that is reinforced by the restrained and deliberate use of color and contrast. Suspended in air, this work’s voids become especially charged, with great resonance in the surrounding space.

Again, from the Winston Wachter website:

By focusing on the formal qualities and potential of her medium, Gardner is able to discover infinite possibilities within this seemingly limited framework. She applies mosaic tiling to create patterns, as well as uses the varying reflective and matte surfaces to experiment with fields of fluctuating color and light.Gardner explains, “My intention is to make work of presence and harmony from the intersection of three very simple elements: light, shape and color. When these elements play with the surface, I want them to reveal a complexity that changes as the day passes over the work.”

A large sculptural installation, Fuse, brings to mind Gardner’s ability to think big and understand scale – usually seen in her commissions for large public and private environments. Two arcs with suspended elements almost intersect to form a mesmerizing curtain.

This is Gardner’s gift.  The ability to use shape, form and reflectivity to create universally engaging moments – or “Points” – In Time.

Our thanks to the artist and the photographer, Lisa Jacoby, for contributing to this post.

Enjoy –– Nancie

Details:

Ann Gardner:  www.anngardner.net

Point in Time, Ann Gardner
Winston Wachter Fine Art
203 Dexter Avenue North
Seattle, Washington
206 652-5855
winstonwachter.com

Previous MAN posts on Ann Gardner:
March 2, 2010  “Convergence”

October 26, 2010  “Lumen”