Skin of an Octopus - Harry Clewans & Linda Ellinwood
Jun 09 - Jul 09 2022
- 12 days left
Drawn to things that are in a state of disrepair or decay, both Harry Clewans and Linda Ellinwood revel about things one might find in a gutter or wash up on a beach––a broken light bulb, a battered plastic toy, a piece of driftwood, or a dried piece of kelp. For them collecting such objects offers insight into how they once worked or were formed and inspires new constructions and artwork that is entirely their own. This approach allows them to explore the ideas that all things, by virtue of their makeup, are connected. All things participate in a cycle of composition and decomposition, in which the old, the broken down, and the disposed of, become material for the new.
Clewans makes woodcuts of found objects and has built up an extensive library of images from which he makes prints that are cut up and arranged to form larger, complex compositions. Like mosaics or jigsaw puzzles these larger works are typically comprised of hundreds of individual pieces that fit together to form a picture on a wood support. Ellinwood works with natural materials—branches, palm stems, seaweed, leaves, seeds, pods—that are commonly ignored, mulched, tossed aside, walked on, invisible; collecting them wherever she finds them in the landscape and storing the smaller, delicate ones in a vintage seed cabinet. To her, they are intrinsically beautiful, haunting, and humorous. By juxtaposing them in unexpected combinations, they begin to speak, becoming creatures — beings.
Contact: info@gearboxgallery.com
www.gearboxgallery.com
Gallery Hours: Thursdays-Fridays-Saturdays, 12-5 pm & First Friday, July 1, 5-8 pm
