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Paper is an ancient material but, as the current exhibition at Qualia Contemporary Art suggests, it is also the foundation for a number of contemporary processes, from prints to photographs. “Lasting Impressions: Works on Paper” is a group show of 10 disparate artists and techniques, all of which celebrate the myriad ways artists can use the venerable medium to create new effects.
Gallery director and owner Dacia Xu explained that she was inspired to curate the show because “artists can do complex works on paper and it has evolved with technology.” She added that this was an important criterion because of the gallery’s location in Silicon Valley. “Artists are creative and Silicon Valley people emphasize creativity,” she said. And, as the owner of a commercial gallery, she said that prints are “more approachable for collectors who don’t have a big budget for art.”
Xu also set out to unite a group of artists who have tangible connections. Several of the artists, like Enrique Chagoya and Xiaoze Xie (both professors of art at Stanford University) are good friends. They, in turn, were close with two late artists, Vernon Fisher and Hung Liu, who are also featured in the show. Fisher is not well known on the West Coast, but his wife and fellow artist, Julie Bozzi, was born in San Jose and attended the University of California at Davis — her work is also shown in “Lasting Impressions.”
Established artists, new techniques
Many of the artists in the show are painters and Xu noted that working on paper can allow for more freedom of expression: “It might also bring some excitement to try new technologies and collaborate with other people.”
The show begins in the entry gallery with two well-known and established artists, Alex Katz and Kiki Smith. Katz’s “Yellow Flags 2” is characteristic of his large-scale, simplified, close-up approach — usually reserved for portraiture — but here used to great effect in a field of bright yellow flowers. Set against a deep black background, this high-contrast print, created using archival pigment inks, is eye-catching and cheerful.
Across the room, Kiki Smith also employs the ink-jet printer to depict fantastical views of the galaxy. These prints are part of a series called “Spring Light” that examine relations between humans and the natural world. The overall effect of the various inks (aqueous and acrylic) highlighted with gold leaf is reminiscent of illustrations in a children’s book.
Enter the main gallery and be struck by the many processes represented, from very basic woodblock prints to etchings, lithographs, gouache and more use of the ink-jet printer. Sam Francis, known as a second generation abstract expressionist, is represented by an untitled lithograph featuring his usual bold, bright splotches of color. In contrast to this free-form approach are several detailed portraits carved into woodblocks by Hung Liu. The women captured in “Winter Blossom” and “Midsummer” have beautiful faces, further embellished by halos of delicate flowers.
Another well-known name in the gallery is Ellsworth Kelly, a member of the “hard-edge school” that reacted to the chaotic approach to painting by artists like Jackson Pollock. “Orange Over Green” is a color-saturated lithograph of a chunky, neon orange arrow against a pea-green background. It’s a fun print and a reminder that color studies like this are more about retinal challenge than underlying message.
Blending new and old tech
Xie has been shown numerous times at Qualia (he is also married to Xu), previously with his painted work. The eight pieces in this show are characteristic of his extreme attention to detail and his predilection for books and libraries. In an email interview he explained, “Libraries are the depositories of our collective knowledge over the ages. It is the meaning of these objects, their architectonic forms, their decay and vulnerability over time, that have fascinated me as subject matter for over 30 years.”
The ancient tomes, captured by means of photogravure and etching processes, are fascinating if only because they still exist. Based on photographs taken at various libraries, the prints portray, according to the artist, “the textures of the materials, the wear and tear, the traces of time left on these objects, their surrounding space and lighting and the mise-en-scene in these images. All of these things are very important to me.”
Xie’s Stanford colleague Chagoya is represented by three of his codices based on pre-Hispanic books, digitally printed on hand-made amate paper. (The paper is created from the native-to-Mexico amate tree, a relative of the fig family). There is a plethora of objects in these prints, some historic in nature and others from popular culture. One could examine them for hours and still not see all the details.
The artist explained his objective: “My codices are an answer (of many possible ones) to the question of how books would be made today by an indigenous artist if they traveled in time to the present and painted or printed some with modern technology and contemporary issues of social conflict, but on amate paper?”
Bozzi’s small but beautifully executed landscapes, done in gouache on paper, are a close study of her surroundings in Texas. Her haystack series, undertaken at various times of the day, will remind you of the haystacks painted by Monet — a comparison of light variations on a quotidian subject. “Dusk” is a simple scene, a line of green trees bordering a barren field, but it evokes a sense of quiet expectation as the day gives way to night.
Bruce Conner, one of the most famous artists to emerge from the 1960s San Francisco counterculture scene, worked in virtually every medium possible. Prior to his death in 2008, he also experimented with ink-jet prints and the examples here are typical of his fondness for enigmas. Tiny characters (one is labeled as a “Memorial Inscription”) are imprinted upon sunlit rock formations, leaving the viewer to wonder what, if anything, they are saying.
Xu said that she really wanted to bring the work of Vernon Fisher to Palo Alto. His two acrylic on paper pieces are big, playful and child-like. But just when you think you are viewing an imaginative fantasy landscape, there in the foreground is an accurate segment of the periodic table. “This was part of his later work using the periodic table and I hope it can strike some resonance with our audience,” said Xu.
The artists in this exhibition hail from many different places and work in many different styles but there is a lively cohesion in the way they all experimented with the most humble of media, paper.
Lasting Impressions: Works on Paper is on view until Feb. 13 at Qualia Contemporary Art, 229 Hamilton Ave. in Palo Alto. qualiacontemporaryart.com.
