Rosewood Arts Center Solo Exhibitions
RENI GOWER: GEOmatrix: The Perfect Proof
ELI KESSLER: Structural Deviation
March 11 – April 13
Artist Talks: April 13, 2 pm

RENI GOWER: GEOmatrix: The Perfect Proof
Reni Gower (Mechanicsville, VA) cuts paper to into “perfect” forms (circles, squares, and triangles) to create immersive installations.  GEOmatrix will create a space where the viewer experiences luminous and contemplative designs that instill a sense of respite and mindfulness.  Using sacred geometry referencing Celtic and Islamic forms, Gower explores how these patterns create connectedness across cultures and people and "shared humanity." Gower is retired faculty from the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University, a curator for Wylie Contemporary Inc and has exhibited her work across the world. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University, a Master of Arts degree from University of Minnesota-Duluth, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

ELI KESSLER: Structural Deviation
Eli Kessler’s (Kent, OH) sculptures explore the history of entertainment, technology, and materiality. His sculptures are created from repurposed objects, steel, carved wood, vinyl, and other mixed media examine particular artifacts, rituals, and cultural phenomena. Kessler earned a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and an MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Sculpture and Expanded Media at Kent State University.

Left to right: Reni Gower, Papercuts: DDFive, 2022, acrylic on hand cut paper; Eli Kessler, Anthropocene Hex Sign, 2021, aluminum, printed PLA plastic, LED lights, moths.

Artist Interviews

What is unique about your process and how does this define your practice?
I am an interdisciplinary artist who works in many different mediums: i.e. painting, printmaking, papercutting. No matter the medium, I work slowly to create artwork that fosters mindfulness. Enticed through touch, repetition, and beauty, my work also encourages a physical and contemplative slowing down. By embracing the redemptive effect of highly focused methodical work made by hand, my artworks transform a shared encounter into a meditation that quiets the nonstop noise of our time.

What influences your work or your creative process?
My artwork recognizes geometric perfection (Sacred Geometry) as the matrix of the cosmos. Since ancient times, perfect forms (circle, square, and triangle) have been thought to convey sacred and universal truths by reflecting the fractal interconnections of the body and the natural world. One finds these similarities embedded in the decorative designs of all cultures across the globe. Significantly, by incorporating these motifs into contemporary works, one can reveal the cross-cultural bonds of our shared humanity.

So inspired, I produce new geometric iterations based on the traditional patterns and cultural symbols governed by the universality of mathematical perfection. Initially informed by American piece quilts, my studio practice has expanded to include hand cut paper works, cut vinyl or sand installations for windows, doors or the floor also inspired by Celtic knotwork and Islamic tile patterns.

What lessons have you learned from other artists?
I love to collaborate with other artists. Often times, these collaborations lead to surprising solutions that later become independent tracks of research for my solo investigations.

Reni Gower Artist Interview PDF

What is unique about your process and how does this define your practice?
As an artist, my practice involves finding relationships between making processes and techniques, materials, imagery, and forms. My artwork incorporates a range of processes that developed at various points in history. Old processes like wood carving exist in the same space as 3D printing and steel fabrication. For me, processes and materials contain latent content that, when thoughtfully utilized, reveal past ideologies. For instance, steel fabrication references industrial notions of progress, wood carving evokes a slower time and more direct interaction with nature, while 3D printing embodies our increasingly digitized existence. With that said, I am not solely interested in using processes in traditional ways but want to utilize processes and materials to actualize new possibilities. Within art, these new possibilities might manifest in new visual forms or new approaches to living.

What influences your work or your creative process?
Throughout my lifetime, art has given me agency—the agency to express a personal viewpoint and the ability to learn more about the world and larger social structures. With agency comes the possibility to move, freely express, and explore. As an artist, I value when art leads to creative liberation. For me, tapping into our exploratory nature, bravely collaborating, and ethically creating new possibilities drives my work.

What lessons have you learned from other artists?
Learning from other artists is absolutely important and one of the things I value most about art. I’ve learned from artists who were my teachers, peers in school, and artist friends. I’ve also learned from experiencing artwork made by living and past artists worldwide. From those experiences, I have realized that art is expanding with new possibilities. I view art as an open limitless space where creative impulses are realized. Some people might contribute to art by expanding traditional approaches, while others might create a whole new approach to art making. In some instances, art relies on traditional ideas of skill that require gaining competencies. Other times, art becomes a space for people to actualize new forms of creativity that are not tethered to disciplines or contrived boundaries. For example, a person with creative impulses associated with engineering might contribute to art by creating kinetic or robotic sculptures, or people with creative impulses to music may gravitate towards art because they have the freedom to make sound art that is not tied to traditional forms of music. With this mindset, art becomes completely inclusive, and anyone has the potential to contribute.

Eli Kessler Artist Interview PDF

ALSO ON VIEW

Don Williams: Fibers
March 6 – April 16, 2024
Kettering resident, artist and architect Don Williams has been active in the Rosewood community since the Arts Center opened in 1985. Most well-known for his ceramic artworks, Williams has also been creating fiber art for decades and returned to the medium in earnest during the pandemic. Several of these works are on view for the first time here, many of which are influenced by techniques, patterns and colors from basket weaving traditions in the Americas.

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