The Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation Presents: Buoyancy

The Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation Presents:

Buoyancy

October 15 – December 5

6 weeks

CLEVELAND (September 8, 2015) – To close our gallery season, Aimee Lee and Kristen Martincic will exhibit artwork that explores themes of water and swimming in Buoyancy. Martincic’s fascination with water prompts her subtle prints, paper life jackets, pool floats, and water installations. Last year, Lee led the launch of our Eastern Paper Studio, where she produces Asian-style papers for books, prints, and sculpture—most notably a series of intricately woven paper ducks in colors derived from natural dyes. Both will present artist talks for members.

Aimee Lee grew up in New York along the Hudson River, which has informed her work as a papermaker. She makes paper from abundant native and invasive plants, and her Fulbright research on hanji (Korean paper) inspires her examination of historical objects. With mastery of jiseung, a method of cording paper strips to weave baskets, she creates beautiful and functional objects. Jiseung was practiced hundreds of years ago to reuse precious scraps of precious hanji—none went to waste because paper is so durable and difficult to produce. Lee transforms this paper into thread, sculpture, books, drawings, prints, and environments. Lee holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Columbia College Chicago. After her Fulbright research in Korea, she built the first Korean papermaking studio in North America at the Morgan Conservatory. Her book, Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking (The Legacy Press, 2012), was recognized by the Eric Hoffer Book Award. She exhibits and is collected internationally and travels widely to teach and lecture. Residencies include Art Farm, Jentel, Haystack, Ragdale, Saltonstall, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Weir Farm Arts Center. Visit www.aimeelee.net for more information.

Kristen Martincic grew up swimming in the Great Lakes and public pools around her childhood home of Cleveland, Ohio. Working with Japanese papers, traditional print media and a hybrid of printmaking, drawing, painting & sculpture, Martincic’s work explores the connection between the body and water. She uses swimming pools and objects associated with water to meditate on water’s translucency and the act of swimming. Her work isolates and reduces this environment to its most fundamental elements: the container, the access ladder, the pool tile, the flotation device, and the water itself. Martincic earned a BFA from Bowling Green State University and an MFA from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Her artwork has been widely shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US as well as in Canada, France and Egypt. Her work is included in several public collections. She has been a resident artist at Jentel, Brush Creek Foundation, Prairie Center of the Arts, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and KHN Center for the Arts. She currently lives and works in Columbia, Missouri. Visit www.kmartincic.com for more information.

Cost: Free
Location: Morgan Conservatory
Opening Reception: October 15th 6 – 9pm; Artist talk begins at 6pm
Open Reception Parking: Our E 45th entrance (one-way running south between Payne & Commerce)
Exhibition Dates: October 15 – December 5
Exhibition Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-4pm

The Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation is an Ohio non-profit art center dedicated to the preservation of hand papermaking and the art of the book. The Morgan Conservatory will pursue its educational and charitable purposes by serving the greater community locally, nationally, and internationally with sustainable practices in an innovative green environment.