Washington,
D.C.-based visual artist Kathy Keler is exhibiting an unusual grouping
of mixed media works at the I- Zone starting on March 26, 2001.
All these pieces have started out as computer prints, but Keler
has taken them a step further-- moving them from the digital domain
back into the studio. She works into her prints using varnishes
and alkyd paint, sometimes covering the entire surface: the finished
pieces lie somewhere on the continuum between painting and print.
To go to the very beginning, Kelerıs prints actually derive from
her original oil and alkyd paintings, which she has had photographed,
and scanned into the computer. This adds to the difficulty of defining
where the painting stops and the print begins. Keler manipulates
the images in Adobe photoshop, and outputs them as giclee prints.
For her, "paint and the computer are equally viable media,
each with its own advantages and drawbacks; this is what makes it
irresistible for me to combine them."
Keler recently returned from a trip to India, where 2 shows of her
mixed media works were well received.
In Calcutta, Samir Dasgupta, art critic for The Telegraph wrote
about her solo exhibit at the American Centre: "the biomorphic
imagery she evokes in her free paintings as well as in her computer-aided
art seems to fuse surreal figuration with sensual abstraction in
a rythmic pattern of strong emotive value².
In Bangalore, where Keler showed works at the Venkatappa Gallery,
the Deccan Herald art critic wrote "...emotive femininity and
the intimate come to the fore in the painted-over prints, with delicate,
almost rarefied figuration.. whose graceful adjusting to the surrounding
shapes speaks of a yearning to attune oneself to everything valuable,
beautiful and vast.."
Included in the show at the I Zone will be some works either exhibited
on her recent trip, or inspired by her experience of India. Puzzle
Woman, (shown above), is a 46" x 46" "digi-painting";
it is composed of 16 sections, which function as a compositional
grid, and also facilitated shipment of the piece.
Born in Budapest,
Hungary, Keler has spent most of her life in the United States.
She has been painting and exhibiting her works for 20 years, with
numerous solo and group shows in the Washington DC area, and exhibits
in other countries including Germany, France, Hungary and Greece.
For further information, and to preview the exhibit, go to : http://washingtonart.net/izone/list.html
