THREE DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Works by
Jane Masters
Susan Mohl Powers
Joyce Utting Schutter

November 20 – December 19, 2003

The title Three Degrees of Separation refers to the ways each artist incorporates imagery from the natural world into their work. Recurrent organic shapes such as the coils and spirals found in seashells, plants, leaves, the intricate patterns observed in insects, microscopic sea creatures and other natural materials form a basic palette for each of them. These central rhythms and repetitions reflect the continuing cycles of life, of death and regeneration. From certain vantage points each artist’s path appears to both converge and diverge in ways that hint about the possibilities of an archetypal awareness of shared experiences that shape our conscious encounters with the natural physical world. Their works also share a meticulous and patient approach to image making and each seems to delight in creating intricate patterns that at once feel fixed and tireless and yet can be understood as an intensely labored interwoven chain, vastly complex and endlessly evolving.

Jane Masters’ recent works include drawings and prints made using silverpoint, charcoal, scratchboard and Screenprinting methods. Crisp and delicate, the line work creates stunning three-dimensional qualities and the shapes seem to undulate across the page as though we were able to see under the ocean and examine minute details of sea lilies and other life forms as they lazily shift with currents of the sea. Of inspiration for her own work, Masters refers to a five-minute animation series that aired on British television in the 1960’s, The Magic Roundtable. Specifically she refers to the fact that traditional methods of animation required 24 handmade individual frames per second and 7,500 images to create five minutes of animation and that the process requires meticulous attention to detail.

Masters was born in London, now lives in Rhode Island and currently teaches in the Foundation program at Rhode Island School of Design. She received her BFA in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in 1990 and her MFA in sculpture from San Jose State University in California. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at: Recent Drawings, Miller Block Gallery, Boston; Jane Masters: Wall to Wall, Nicholas Gallery, New York; Jane Masters: Recent Work, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA and group shows at The 2003 DeCordova Annual Exhibition, The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA and Obsessive Patterns, David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI.

Susan Mohl Powers’ large-scale sculptures seem at once ethereal and rock solid. Made of bits and pieces of fabrics sewn together the structures are mostly monochromatic applications of color that explode with resonance and power. Using many traditional sewing methods such as tucks, pleats and French seams, the works contain fluted edges that billow and recess, curve and extend in ways that seem to try to defy gravity. Hanging from the ceiling of the gallery they float in a kind of provocative animation, both skeleton and membrane creating a balance of tensions that comfort and awe the viewer in the same breath.

Powers received her MFA in visual design from UMASS Dartmouth and is currently represented by Galleria Eclettica in Milan, Italy. Recent exhibitions include solo shows with Galleria Eclettica, Sterling Millworks Gallery, and group shows at The Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI. She has collaborated with a number of artists on special projects including Claes Oldenburg’s Lion’s Tail exhibited in the Piazza San Marco during the 2000 Venice Biennal. She was also the recipient of The Helen E. Ellis Trust Grant in 1994. She lives in Westport, Massachusetts.

Joyce Utting Schutter recently moved to New England from Iowa and she received both her BFA and MFA from the University of Iowa in 1993 and 1997. In her statement she refers to making works that pay attention to the interconnectedness of things. And much of her work is about looking to the subtle shifts in the world around her and seeking to find a balance between materials, content and structure of the shapes she creates. She pays attention to each small event, the most familiar occurrence and imbues it with a reverence and resonance that lifts it to a level of clarity reinvigorated.

Schutter’s works have appeared in publications such as The Papermaker’s Companion published in 2000 and in the journal Hand Papermaking, Winter 1998 issue. Recent exhibitions include Len Everett Award Show, Arts for the Living Center, Burlington, IA; Nothing Gold Can Stay, The Witter Gallery, Storm Lake, IA; Fidelity Investments All Media Exhibition, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI; and The Artful Woman, The Banana Factory, Bethlehem, PA.