Emily Payne: Pentimento

Emily Payne Pentimento

Emily Payne Pentimento September 1 - September 30, 2018 Reception for the artist: Saturday, September 8, 5:30 - 7:30pm Front Cover: Emily Payne: Pentimento 1, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on book boards, 55 x 60�

Back Cover: Emily Payne: Five Days Installation, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, gouache on book boards, 72 x 108� in situ at Aquatic Park, San Francisco, April, 2018, (photo by Hillary Goidell)

Photo Credits: Dana Davis and Hillary Goidell Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 108 Throckmorton Avenue Mill Valley, CA 94941 415-384-8288 seagergray.com

All rights reserved.

Catalog can be purchased through the gallery for $20 plus handling and shipping.

Email us at art@seagergray.com

pen·ti·men·to a visible trace of earlier painting beneath a layer or layers of paint on a canvas.

“Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect, but it is always still. The next step is motion. “ - Alexander Calder

Emily Payne working on Five Days, Aquatic Park, San Francisco, April, 2018

Emily Payne: Breaking Boundaries

Emily Payne creates a platform or “canvas” for her works by assembling vintage book boards to form a surface that has pattern, history and breaks the confines of the perfect rectangle.

By using the covers as a platform for something new, she is able to hold onto the history and personal stories that the books contain while giving them a new purpose. Payne often traces the shadows of her own filigreed wire sculpture onto the work, creating an intriguing interplay between two and three-dimensions, light and shadow.

The title of the exhibition, Pentimento is echoed in the title of four paintings, one blue, one pink, one yellow and one green. Payne’s last show was very tonal - mostly in graphite and the brown natural shades of the vintage book covers and she was longing to bring in color. In each, with paint, she has again drawn the three-dimensional shape of one of her sculptures, leaving traces of an earlier impression - the pentimento - in the background. The effect gives the foreground image the illusion of moving forward in space. In the large blue work, Pentimento 1, by filling in all of the area on the outside of the sculpture to the edge of the canvas, she has been able to leave the patterned space between the wires in the lighter blue underpainting. The effect is satisfying, as though she has somehow managed to capture space itself on a two-dimensional surface in undulating pattern.

In April of this year, Emily Payne participated in the Reimagine End of Life conference, a San Francisco, city-wide event which explored big questions about life and death. By coincidence, the conference fell on the exact anniversary of her father’s near-drowning and death five days later, when she was ten. In dedication and remembrance of her father and his passing, she created an outdoor wall drawing entitled Five Days, a large installation included in this exhibition.

In the studio, she prepared six 3’ x 3’ canvases, made of cut-up vintage book boards. These boards were attached to wood backings that, when put together, formed a 6’ x 9’ movable wall which was transported to the San Francisco Senior Center at Aquatic Park, the sponsor of her project.

Five Days Installation, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, gouache on book boards, 72 x 108�

When Payne arrived at the park to get started, she had a moment of panic. She had no idea what she was going to do. She went for a moment to the water’s edge to center herself and thought “Just get started.

Start with something you know.”

brought with her Molt a wire sculpture she had created beforehand.

She had

She secured the

wire sculpture and began to draw its shadow on the variegated surface of the panels.

For those who experienced Payne’s 2017 exhibition at Seager Gray, this is not a new concept.

Payne worked throughout the exhibition drawing the shadows of a wire sculpture directly on the wall of the gallery allowing visitors to talk with her and experience the drawing as it progressed.

In Five Days, however, Payne realized that the sun was always shifting and the shadow would move from one place to the other so she drew them as they moved, the lines of the sculpture appearing at different places upon the panel, depending on the time of day. This, along with the ever-changing pattern of waves on the shore of Aquatic Park where she was working and the theme of the project about growing older and the passage of time created a powerful metaphor, getting at a theme ever-present in her work. “We are constantly changing,” said Payne, “hopefully molting, shedding old skins to allow for new growth. I don’t want my work to be static.”

There are three large works in the exhibition, Five Days, First Flight and Molting. Molting is the intentionally unfinished work that Payne will be continually work on during the course of the exhibition. First Flight came about when two panels she had assembled ended up being intriguing in and of themselves with their rhythm of blue panels, maps and bits of text. “I couldn’t paint on it without disturbing that rhythm, so instead I drew the shadows of an earlier landscape-like sculpture I had made both in graphite and blue pencil.” Payne was just about to leave for a month-long residency in Iceland and she felt that the piece with its maps and long linear feeling of distance marked a time in her life when her children were grown enough to allow her to explore her identity as an artist and to strip away all distractions.

And so, on the first of June of 2018, Payne took off to Reykjavík, Iceland for the month long international SÍM residency. With nothing but time in front her, she found that “the time opened up and spread out.” She discovered that her own natural pace was very slow, much slower than her life generally demanded. The landscape matched the artist’s temperament and love of process. Land formations were created from the combination of volcano and ice, happening over thousands of years. The slow-moving geological processes resulted in plateaued reaches of land and basalt hexagonal rock formations, their irregular patterns not entirely unlike the artist’s patterned wire sculptures and variegated book panels. Several of the works in the exhibition were created in Iceland during her stay there including the Fossil and Sediment series with graphite on trace paper.

Payne loves the story about Alexander Calder who once showed up for an exhibition of his work at Harvard with only his luggage. When the folks at the museum asked him where the sculpture was, he took a roll of wire out of his pocket. “Right here,” he said. He pulled his pliers out of the other pocket and proceeded to produce the whole show, on the spot. “I love that,” said Payne. “It’s not about the finished thing. It’s about the process.” It’s not just the thing itself for Payne, but the space around it, the light, the shadow, the way it energizes the environment.

By staying loose and open, “like that fluid state of a chrysalis when metamorphosis occurs, ” says Payne, “you somehow bring your own story to the process.”

- Donna Seager, August 2018

Molting Installation, 2018, graphite on book boards, 98 x 146�

First Flight, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, gouache on book boards, 36 x 96�

Pentimento 1, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on book boards, 55 x 60�

Pentimento 2, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on book boards, 40 x 40�

Pentimento 3, 2018, graphite, colored pencil, acrylic on book boards, 35 x 37�

Pentimento Installation, 2018, acrylic on book boards, book covers, four panels, 24 x 24 “ each.

Molt 1, 2018, wire, 30 x 46 x 3�

Molt 2, 2018, wire, 9 x 25 x 2�

Molt 3, 2018, wire, 21 x 26 x 2�

Glint Diptych, 2018, gold leaf on book boards, 10 x 10 x 1� (each

Glint 2, 2018, gold leaf, book covers, book boards, 23 x 24 x 2�

Glint 3, 2018, gold leaf, book covers, book boards, 27 x 12.5 x 1�

Glint 4, 2018, gold leaf, book covers, book boards, 24 x 10.5 x 1�

Ebb and Flow 1, 2018, graphite on book boards, 10 x 16 x 1�

Ebb and Flow 2, 2018, book cloth on book boards, 8 x 8.5 x 1�

Ebb and Flow 3, 2018, graphite on book boards, 9 x 10 x 1�

Ebb and Flow 4, 2018, gold leaf, graphite, trace paper, metal, book board, 9 x 11 x 1�

Ebb and Flow 5, 2018, gold leaf, graphite, book cover on book board, 9 x 7 x 1�

Ebb and Flow 6, 2018, gold leaf, graphite, colored pencil

Chrysalises, 2018, wire with ceramic coating, 25 x 35 x 4�

Chrysalis 3, 2018, wire with ceramic coating, 23 x 9 x 2�

Line Dry 3, 2018, acrylic on book boards, 12.5 x 12.5 x 1�

Line Dry 4, 2018, acrylic on book boards, 10.5 x 10.5 x 1�

Basalt 1, 2018, wire, 10 x 9 x 1�

Basalt 2, 2018, wire, 14 x 9 x 8�

Sediment 1, 2018, graphite on trace paper, 15 x 15�

Sediment 2, 2018, graphite on trace paper, 32 x 32�

Sediment 3, 2018, graphite on trace paper, 28 x 31�

Sediment 4, 2018, graphite on trace paper, 27 x 27�

Fossil 1, 2018, trace paper on book board, 4.5 x 5.5 x 1�

Fossil 2, 2018, graphite on trace paper, 26 x 26.5�

Fossil 3, 2018, graphite on trace paper, 26 x 1�

EMILY PAYNE

b. San Francisco, CA

EDUCATION SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY, M.F.A. Printmaking and Book Arts, 1999 OBERLIN COLLEGE, OHIO, B.A. Honors in English and Women’s Studies, 1988 SOLO EXHIBITIONS Pentimento, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley September 2018 Heave Heft | Weave Weft, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2017 Solo Exhibition, ERICA TANOV, Los Angeles 2017 Solo Exhibition, ERICA TANOV, Berkeley 2017 Full Circle, DONNA SEAGER GALLERY, San Rafael 2015 Solo Exhibition, ERICA TANOV, Berkeley 2012 Unbound, SFMOMA ARTISTS GALLERY, San Francisco 2009 Hover, ERICA TANOV, Berkeley 2009 GROUP EXHIBITIONS The Art of the Book, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2018 Material Matters, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2018 Art Market San Francisco, (Represented by KALA) 2018 The Art of the Book, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2017 Powder and Smoke, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2017 Art Market San Francisco, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY and KALA) 2017

By The Book, KALLER FINE ARTS, Washington DC 2017 Codex Book Fair, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY), Berkeley 2017

Art Market San Francisco, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY and KALA) 2015 The Art of the Book, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2015 Codex Book Fair, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY), Berkeley 2015 Women’s Work, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2014 The Art of the Book, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2014 Materials Matters, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2013 Art Miami, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Miami 2013 Art Market San Francisco, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY and KALA) 2013 Lure, SFMOMA Artist Gallery, San Francisco On View, KALA ART INSTITUTE, Berkeley 2013 Codex Book Fair, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY), Berkeley 2013 The Art of the Book, SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Mill Valley 2012 Art Market San Francisco, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY and KALA) 2012 On View, KALA ART INSTITUTE, Berkeley 2012 The Art of the Book, DONNA SEAGER GALLERY, San Rafael 2011 Codex Book Fair, (Represented by DONNA SEAGER GALLERY), Berkeley 2011 Art Miami, (Represented by SEAGER GRAY GALLERY, Miami 2011 Reconstructions, CONRAD WILDE GALLERY, Tucson, 2011 Habitat, BANK OF COMMERCE, Lafayette 2011 Aqua Art Miami, (Represented by DONNA SEAGER GRAY), Miami 2010

Line Up, ARTSPACE, Santa Rosa 2010 Groundswell, KALA ART INSTITUTE, Berkeley 2010 239, ART AT THE CHEESE FACTORY, Petaluma 2010 Unbound, BEDFORD GALLERY, Walnut Creek 2010 Seamarks, CECILE MOOCHNEK GALLERY, Berkeley 2009 Haven, ART AT THE CHEESE FACTORY, Petaluma 2009 Group Exhibition, GALLERY ROUTE ONE, Point Reyes Station 2009 PUBLIC ART (PURCHASES / COMMISSIONS) Tumble, HAYWARD PUBLIC LIBRARY, Hayward, 2018 Five Days: An Art Installation, SF AQUATIC PARK SENIOR CENTER/REIMAGINE CONFERENCE, 2018 Tumbleweed Installation, STANFORD MEDICAL CENTER, Emeryville 2016 Where in the World, SQUARE HQ, San Francisco 2016 Tumble Diptych, ONE HENRY STREET APARTMENTS, San Francisco 2016 Where in the World Triptych, INFORMING CHANGE, Berkeley 2015 Brush, EICHLER SUMMIT BUILDING, San Francisco 2015 Pinwheel Series, KAISER HOSPITAL, Redwood City 2014 Swim Triptych, KAISER HOSPITAL, Oakland 2014 Seed, JUNIPER NETWORKS, Sunnyvale 2013 The Year of a Rebel, SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY, San Francisco 2012 East West Installation, GALLERY 555, City Center, Oakland 2011 Hover, GORDON AND BETTY MOORE FOUNDATION, Palo Alto 2010 Acres of Diamonds, LAFAYETTE LIBRARY & LEARNING CENTER, Lafayette 2009

Basin, ALAMEDA COUNTY ARTS COMMISSION, Oakland 2008 Untitled (book cover collage), KAISER MEDICAL CENTER, San Clara 2005 RESIDENCIES, AWARDS AND COMMENDATIONS Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, 2019 SIM RESIDENCY, Reykjavík, Iceland 2018 GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT, SFSU 1999 CADOGAN/MURPHY FELLOWSHIP, San Francisco Foundation 1998 STILLWELL AWARD, SFSU 1998