New Art Exhibition Exploring Light, Space, and Form Opens September 10 at DZINE Gallery
Author:Lindsey ShookJoin DZINE Gallery in San Francisco on September 10 for the opening night reception of Davey Whitcraft and Mark Goudy: Words Without Translation, a two-artist exhibition featuring works of photography by Davey Whitcraft and ceramic art by Mark Goudy.
Light, space, and form are central concerns for both artists, while their processes incorporate technological invention in creating a visual language of new representations and forms. These artists share a unified conceptual vision of the role of the mind in experiencing a work of art: what is translated in the mind through spatial memory and what cannot be translated in naming a complex idea and emotion.
Davey Whitcraft’s works of photography are color fields of pure prismatic color and light that are abstractions of the built environment and beyond. Inspired by what he describes as “The American West’s vast visuality, of light and space,” Whitcraft works with the visual artifacts created by being in and observing the built environment. Whitcraft says, “For me the art happens in the head, not on the canvas.” Whitcraft presents to the viewer minimal cues which trigger an engagement of spatial memory. The series prompts viewers to search their own internal “visual database” of shapes, lines, and colors observed previously, revealing their own subconscious visual relationship to space.
Using a combination of analog and digital methods, Whitcraft samples areas of light and color and recombines them on paper, letting the in-between areas become delicate gradients. Whitcraft describes his process as similar to instructional or programmatic art, having created a specific “engine” that weaves in between techniques, mostly remaining in the digital realm until the ink hits the paper. “The pieces become somewhat of a Ganzfeld of hue and saturation,” shares Whitcraft, referencing the Ganzfeld Effect of sensory deprivation, when the brain is deprived of visual stimulation and fills in the blanks on its own, “…and it affords a feeling of being lost in fields of color.”
Mark Goudy presents works of ceramic art from his Origami, Shell, and Waveform series made in slipcast paper-thin translucent porcelain, often colored with delicate soluble metal watercolors. Goudy says of his work, “I make vessels which are containers for light and atmosphere.” The starting point for Goudy is a focus on minimalist archetypal forms that reflect the geometries of nature. For the selected work on view, Goudy designed a series of balancing forms that are inspired by Japanese paper folding. When set on a flat surface these forms rock back and forth, naturally settling into their inherent balance point.
In a unique process merging his engineering background with his artistic sensibilities, Goudy combines traditional slip casting with algorithmic 3D software. His technique creates surfaces of graduated shades of blue, some bold and saturated and others clad in almost indescribable delicate whisper shades. The colors permeate the surface, and are part of the material, having what Goudy describes as “material property, not just painted or lying on the surface.” The final work is vitrified into porcelain.
Goudy says, “I want the work to appear at first simple but with a hidden complexity that draws in the viewer. There is a perceptual illusion or a cognitive dissonance for the viewer in seeing something new.” Goudy adds, “Certain forms evoke a sense of quiet stillness and mystery and exist in a dimension apart from language. I don’t fully understand it.”
Davey Whitcraft and Mark Goudy: Words Without Translation at DZINE Gallery
Opening night reception – September 10, 5:00–6:30
On view through December 1, 2021
Monday–Friday, 9–5; Saturdays by appointment
128 Utah Street, San Francisco
Contact: gallery@dzineliving.com, 415.674.9430
Visit www.dzinegallery.com.
