Multiplicity: New Work by Gretchen Schermerhorn
Aug. 30 – Oct. 23, 2022
Opening Reception:
Friday, September 9, 5-7pm
Barry Gallery, Reinsch Library Building, MU Main Campus (near 26th St. entrance)
All are welcome!
Barry Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by DMV-area artist and educator Gretchen Schermerhorn. Her primary media include printmaking, mold-making, and one-of-a-kind works employing duplicative methods. With these means, she presents a multi-faceted vision in exploring her content.
Schermerhorn writes,
“My work investigates our relationship with the natural environment, specifically our efforts to understand it, and ultimately, control it. I observe and research plant and animal evolution, survival mechanisms and habits, and how advancements in medicine both assist, as well as interfere with, these forces.
“Printmaking, mold-making, and duplicative methods are appealing because I can blend modern and traditional processes. I believe going back and forth like this further explains how our interactions with the natural world are filtered through technological advancements.
“This body of work is inspired by images and text found in a set of nearly 80-year-old encyclopedias. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, many of the ‘facts’ in these books have now been refuted. This body of work addresses the pessimistic meta-induction theory, which argues that if past scientific theories that were successful are false, we have no reason to believe that our current successful theories are approximately true. I enjoy using the same matrix but experimenting with printing the layers in a different order and in different colors and levels of transparency to achieve a variation on a theme. Most of this work forces multiple images together into the same composition to illustrate how our relationship with the natural world is both competitive and destructive.”
Sample images from the in-person exhibition:
Gretchen Schermerhorn is Artistic Director of Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, an organization dedicated to the contemporary creation of hand printmaking, papermaking, and the art of the book, in Hyattsville, Maryland. She received her MFA in Printmaking from Arizona State University, and since then has completed artist residencies at The Women’s Studio Workshop in New York, Columbia College Center for Book and Paper in Chicago, Seacourt Print Workshop in Northern Ireland, California State University, and the Robert Rauschenberg Residency in Florida. Her prints, installations, and works on paper works have been exhibited around the country and internationally, and her work is part of the Montgomery County Public Art Trust, Anne Arundel Community College’s print collection, and the Janet Turner Print Collection. She has received individual artist awards from both the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. She has taught workshops at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Snow Farm-New England Craft, Women’s Studio Workshop, Touchstone Center for Arts & Crafts, and the University of North Texas, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches Printmaking and Book Arts.
Banner image: Gretchen Schermerhorn, detail from Runners, 2020, screenprint on gampi tissue mounted on wood armature, 13” x 20” x 1”
