Kia Pedersen, A Change in the Wind, Dec. 15 - Jan. 23, 2012

Sara Nightingale Gallery is pleased to present Kia Pedersen, A Change in the Wind, opening Saturday, Dec. 15, from 5 - 8 p.m.

  Trained as a printmaker, sculptor, painter and architect, Pedersen fuses these practices to achieve her goal of subverting traditional methods of printmaking. She deconstructs the standard intaglio printmaking process by rearranging and/ or eliminating certain steps. Her prints begin as thick, dense asphaltum paintings whose complex history and texture generate varied unique surfaces. Engaging an earthy and mineral-rich palette of inks, some of her best intaglio prints express a tactile grittiness and surprising depth. Often, her dramatically eroded and brittle, lace-like copper plates never make it to press, only and always to exist as striking sculptural reliefs.

  In Pedersen's current work she omits the printing process altogether. Asphaltum is applied directly to a copper plate, and organic materials, such as salt water from the bays near her Shelter Island studio, are used to corrode the remaining exposed area. Process and material determine the final outcome rather than planned compositional schemes. Recently, she has been using the wind as her source of formal composition. As a result, some of the works reveal a pattern of orderly directional marks, while others seem to have derived from eddies and swirls. Pedersen, an accomplished sailor, is sensitive to subtle changes in the wind and allows them the autonomy to determine design. Although the work is co-authored with the wind, it is unified by a set of parameters; medium, process, material and palette are the constants that give the work its voice.

  The exhibition will run through Jan. 23rd. For more information and images contact Sara Nightingale at sara@saranightingale.com

  Image: Kia Pedersen, Wind/ Tar Series #6, tar and sea salt on copper, 30" x 30"