The new artists keep on coming for the new season here at Tappan Z Gallery and this week we have two artists using techniques of optical art in quite different ways.
If you drop by, or drive-by the gallery you'll notice a couple of large distinctive new pieces in our windows. Will Hanlon uses custom-made mapping pins to create elaborate and intensely colorful 3-D geometric panels. Each of the panels has to be carefully mapped out mathematically and the pushpins are then mounted onto the styroform boards. Here's Will describing his work:
"Each piece begins with a vision - a surface, or maybe a geometric pattern, or maybe a spectrum of color. Sometimes it only makes sense after all three are blended. Finally, with the vision in mind, the engineering begins and the process becomes the artist. As the surface takes shape and the pins start converging, the original vision morphs into its own destiny. When the last pin is pushed and the frame goes up, a 4th dimension emerges. As you view it, moving around the space, seeing a new shape, a new hue almost at every angle - at that moment, the piece has a name."
Will is a Tarrytown local and you can view more images of his work here at the Tappan Z Gallery website.
Using optical effects in quite a different way is Wen Redmond, a fiber artist working out of New Hampshire. Wen has developed a unique holographic technique that she incorporates into her panels. The effect is quite startling as the front image on organza floats over a background giving her works a powerful 3-dimensional impact. The pieces we have reflect her interest in the relationship between humans and the environment.
"I am quite passionate about my work. I continue to explore my chosen medium, fabric, to see what it can do, to stretch its perception as art medium. When I work, I encourage a collaborative process with spirit or my higher self, that mind-boggling principle of the universe. This process can also be called ‘flow’. When you are in this state of mind, the intuitive is tapped and the work can become more than the sum of it’s parts. I work out insights, inspirations, feelings and reactions to the outer world. Allowing time for these inspirations to percolate up from my unconscious is a vital part of my process."
Wen's work and more details on her techniques are available to read here at our website, and if you pop into the gallery between 12-8pm Tuesday to Sunday you can enjoy them for yourself.
