MAPPING
Mapping
TARA THACKER
exhibition
solo
In April of this year, I had the opportunity to work with a master printer for five days to explore the process of collagraph printmaking. The experience was incredible – most valued was the chance to work alongside another artist and expert in the field of printmaking – also to have the ability to explore a new creative process. My goal was to commit the time to see if my artistic concepts could translate into prints.
To explain a bit more about my intentions for this project, I’ve been inspired to make a series of works utilizing a variety of mediums (ceramic, glass, photography, and printmaking, so far) that explore my fascination with shadows and specifically the documentation of the shadows that are created from my ceramic installations titled Shadow Baskets. This series is inspired by intricately crafted fishing baskets, traps and utilitarian vessels from Japan and Sub-Saharan Africa. My resulting sculptures are created with skeletal and linear elements using porcelain paperclay. Once installed, layers of shadows are cast upon the background wall which transforms the work and becomes the most exciting aspect of the work for me. I then document the installation (specifically the shadows that mark the walls) and from there, I work with the images to create drawings and cut paper templates for future works.
The prints are all multiple plate monoprints and the series is titled Shadow Maps. All were printed full bleed on white Rives BFK (22” x 30”) with multiple collagraph plates and stencils using oil paints and Gamblin printmaking ink. My process began by drawing with gel medium on matboard and adding carborundum to hold the ink. Each print uses multiple plates from this series, and several incorporate the ghost prints and stencils.
Tara ThackerSeptember 2022
Shadow Map # 8 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map # 15 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map #12 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map #1 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map #5 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map #14 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map # 16 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map #17 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map # 4 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map # 7 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
Shadow Map # 6 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30”
At the heart of my artwork is a love of materiality and an ongoing fascination with the process of transformation. I am absorbed in a labor-intensive creative process, bordering on obsessive. Each individual part is unique and serves as an architectural component which I combine in various ways to discover how they behave visually. I want even more to make something of it, to transcend its initial existence, and create a new, unforeseen surface or landscape. Through abstraction I aim to draw a connection between observation and memory.
Clay is my material of choice not only for it’s for tactile beauty and malleability, but also for the technical and historical challenges that come with it. It is my intention to make works that you don’t immediately associate as being ceramic. The works often appear soft or to be made of fabric rather than the hard fired surface that they are.
My newest work takes inspiration from folklore of the avian world. These works in clude a series of wall sculptures made in a variety of materials such as porcelain, black clay, lead, and wood as well as a suite of collagraph prints. These works continue to use themes of repetition of form and material transformation to create layered, tactile works that lend reference to the shadows created by my sculptures, nocturnal landscapes, and the wing structures of Corvidae (the crow family) & Falconidae (falcons).
Tara Thacker May 2022Midnight Landscape detail
Midnight Landscape black clay 24” x 14” x 6”
Shadow Baskets porcelain paper clay and paint 6 ft x 1 ft x 9 ft
Shadow Baskets detail
Winter Horizon porcelain and steel 30” x 8” x 14”
Winter Horizon detail
Retrices (Starling) lead on canvas 32” x 44”
Retrices (Starling)
detail
Shadow Map #7 collagraph / monoprint 22” x 30” Retrices (Egret) glazed porcelain 42” x 50” x 1.5”
Retrices (Egret) detail
Retrices (Grackle)
solder
canvas
plumbing
on
20” x 20”
Retrices
(Grackle) detail
Retrices (Loon) glazed porcelain on canvas 26” x 26”
Retrices (Loon) detail
Retricesd (Mockingbird) porcelain and graphite 24” x 16”
Retricesd (Mockingbird) detail
Shadow Shadow (#1) ceramic with silicon carbide 22” sq
Shadow Shadow (#2) ceramic with silicon carbide 22” sq
Ellipse
Midnight
black clay on canvas 40” x 24”
Midnight Ellipse detail
Remiges (Caracara) black clay on canvas 52” x 120”
Remiges (Caracara) detail
Retrices (Mourning Dove)
porcelain
canvas
glazed
on
24” x 16”
Retrices (Mourning Dove) detail
Shadow Study (#1) engraved glass 12” x 12” x .5”
Shadow Study (#2) engraved glass 12” x 12” x .5”
EDUCATION
1995 M.F.A. Ceramics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1992 B.F.A. Crafts / Minor in Art History, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Northern Vermont University (www.nvu.edu), Johnson, VT Assistant Professor of Sculpture (Aug. 2019 - present)
Vermont Studio Center (www.vermontstudiocenter.org), Johnson, VT Visual Arts Director (Oct. 2012 - Jul. 2019)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Staged, MANIFEST Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2022 Sculpture National, Clay Center of New Orleans, NOLA
2021 (Im)Balance, Ceramics Monthly Magazine (September Issue)
2021 Lightness of Being, Minėmå Gallery, Johnson, VT
2020 Come Together: NVU Faculty Art Exhibit, Quimbly & Julian Scott Galleries, Lyndon & Johnson, VT
2019 Composing Form (Christina Cordova, Sergei Isupov, Kadri Parnamets & Tara Thacker)
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
2018 Contemporary Reflections, Orth Contemporary, Tulsa, OK
2017 Artist Showcase, Orth Contemporary, Tulsa, OK
2015 Staff Perspectives, Gallery 2, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2007 Tara Thacker and Justin Quinn, MMGalleries, San Francisco, CA
2005 Coming Together, Michael Martin Galleries, San Francisco, CA
2004 West Coasting, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2004 In the Summer…, Haley Martin Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 SF International Art Expo, Michael Martin Galleries, San Francisco, CA
2003 Beginnings, Ligne Roset, San Francisco, CA
2002 Together, Michael Martin Galleries, San Francisco, CA
2002 SF International Art Expo, Michael Martin Galleries, SF, CA
2001 Interpreted Visions, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
2000 West Coasting, Westbourne Grove, Michael Martin Galleries, London, UK
1999 Tiles, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
1998 LaGrange National Biennial XX Exhibition, Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange, GA
1997 Clay on the Wall, FOVA Gallery, Lubbock, TX
1996 New Works, Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA
1996 Terra Firma, National Clay Exhibition, Corbin Art Center, Spokane, WA
1995 Sculptural Clay Now, Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA
1995 Emerging Talents, Habitat/Shaw Gallery, Pontiac, MI
1995 Influence and Introspection, Pacific Northwest Ceramics, Corvallis Art Center, Corvallis, OR
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Alliance for the Visual Arts, Ava Gallery, Lebanon NH (October)
2022 Mapping, Stewart Gallery, Boise Idaho (September – October)
2022 Darken, Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Northern Vermont University, Johnson, VT (March)
2019 Marsh, Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2017 Landscapes & Shadows, Orth Contemporary, Tulsa, OK
2016 Tara Thacker – Sculptures & Photographs, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
2014 Porcelain Sculptures, Johnson State College, Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Johnson, VT
2013 Installation, Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT (2013, 2009, 2004)
2002 West Coasting - Tara Thacker, Broadbent Gallery, London, UK
2001 Wall Drawings, Doris Ullman Gallery, Berea, KY
2000 Linea, Michael Martin Galleries, San Francisco, CA
Mapping 09/21 10/22