Published by Ken Saunders Gallery 230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 www.kensaundersgallery.com
Š 2012 Ken Saunders Gallery All Rights Reserved Printed and Bound in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 First Edition May 2012 Design: Deborah Kraft Photography: Dan Kvitka ISBN 978-0-9834519-8-3
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Catharine Newell: Confabulation June 1 - July 7, 2012
In a quest to imbue her fused glass objects with meaning Catharine Newell works pictorially combining photographic processes with her object making. The results are sculptural in the sense that the objects she creates have weight and mass that sets them explicitly apart from works on paper. But the works are also distinctly graphic, relying primarily on image to convey meaning while the object is somewhat reduced to acting as a support upon which the artwork rests. In her work Catharine Newell explores notions of perception and memory. The photographic images are suggestive of character and narrative. The juxtaposition of disparate and related images in single works further heightens this suggestion. These works are exciting because they are so full of suggestion and yet ultimately meaning is elusive, thoroughly dependent on the perceptions of the viewer. Ken Saunders
7
Presence of Absence: Louisiana IV 2012 40 x 12 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches
11
e tend to assume that we are the product of our past, informed and bound by personal history and attendant memory. It seems more logical to presume that we exist only in the present within the malleability of original consciousness; that we are composed of perceptions held in the present of things we erroneously believe we have assigned to the past. Catharine Newell
13
Confabulation XI 2012 41 1/8 x 8 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches
15
Confabulation XII 2012 61 1/4 x 5 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches
19
Presence of Absence: Louisiana III 2012 26 x 16 1/4 x 1/2 inches
23
Confabulation XIII 2012 62 3/4 x 10 1 /4 x 1 1/2 inches
25
5 Seconds with OP 2006 6 x 7 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches each
27
Confabulation X 2012 41 5/8 x 8 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches
31
Catharine Newell, recognized for her distinctive figurative work using glass powders, exhibits her unique approach to kiln working internationally. Recent exhibitions include Collect at Saatchi Gallery in London, Art Chicago and SOFA Santa Fe and Chicago. An ardent educator, Newell’s teaching history includes Master classes at Pilchuck Glass School, North Lands Glass and Corning, as well as venues across Europe and the UK, Australia, China, and Norway. Juried four times into Corning Museum’s New Glass Review, her work has been acquired for the permanent collections of Swedish Hospital, Hotel Murano, Bullseye Glass Company, Hunter Museum of American Art, University of Miami Lowe Museum and Tsighua University Museum in Beijing. Newell maintains a private studio in Portland, Oregon.
31
KEN SAUNDERS GALLERY