Sharp Hands Gallery Spring 2023

Special edition: Educators Showcase

CURATORS’ NOTES

Try to imagine a world where teachers didn’t exist. Frankly, it’s a depressing and horrible thought. We should all take comfort in knowing that teachers are everywhere, helping and influencing humans in all manners of being. In a world struggling in so many ways, dedicated educators–perhaps more than anyone else–strive to keep us balanced and save us from total catastrophe. The amount of time and heart that they put into their work is immeasurable. In the collage world, there are many teachers creating fantastic, joyful, and ambitious work. In this show, we celebrate Spring with a team of wonderful collagists, who enrich the world with their artistic skills as much as their selfless work in schools and other institutions.

Michael Toti, the man behind some of the best image transfers on instagram, brings us six new works that turn bookish detritus into beautiful assemblages with fantastic acrylic touches that bring everything together. After a decades’ long career in graphic design, he is now an adjunct professor in Connecticut.

The colorful lines throughout Lyz Wendland’s vibrant collages act as bridges to her many methodologies. It’s as if you’re looking from a helicopter at a fantastical landscape of fields, rivers, roads, and other terrain. Her bright brushstrokes and semi-transparent pigments ebb and flow from within a myriad of cut, organic shapes. She teaches drawing and painting at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Miranda Millward’s work brilliantly utilizes a fold technique that leaves an angular web in her collages. Her stunners also feature punched holes that seem to mimic buttons, or polkadots, or moth eaten knitted wares. The bright lipstick and manicures of the women peek through the swaths of idealic tiles, curtains and linens to create a vertigo of domesticity. Miranda runs an arts programme for young people with Special Educational Needs, Learning Disabilities, and Social, Emotional, and Mental Health needs in Oxford, UK.

Canadian Aimée Henny Brown is an incredible artist and speaker. We would encourage everyone to dig up any clips you can find of her presentations (there’s one on her website, where you can also appreciate the breadth of her artistic practice, from collage to installation to performance). Her art is pensive, and she is constantly challenging the status quo to foster a dialogue for a better tomorrow. The meandering edges of her collages create gorgeous negative spaces, and we would encourage you to squint at each piece to see just how strong each composition is. She is an Assistant Professor of foundations, 3D, and extended media, living and working onthe unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl'ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh) peoples (Vancouver, BC).

Seattle-based artist Craig van den Bosch is constantly exploring the dynamism between biology and technology, and it’s evident in all his works, from collage comics (he is one of the people behind Microverse Press) to sculptural ceramic collages. A man of many talents, he is also a musician and has a long history of teaching. He is currently an instructor of art at Shorecrest High School teaching digital photography, ceramics, 2D Foundations, and yearbook graphic design.

Ann E. Lawton’s depth, layers, and intricate windows seem to pop off the page in her wonderful new set of collage works. The visual push and pull within the layers invites both artist and viewer to ponder their perceptions. Ann is another powerful speaker and is an instructor in the art department at the University of Wisconsin—River Falls (UWRF). She also facilitates in-home art therapy services with neuro-divergent children in the St. Croix Valley of Western Wisconsin.

Thank you for experiencing these dazzling works with us. As always, all works are available for purchase with 100% of proceeds going directly to the artists.

Thank you and enjoy,

Cheryl Chudyk & Kevin Sampsell, curators