January 2014

Greenhill in Greensboro, NC, Features Works by Mathew Curran, April Flanders, Mark Iwinski and Indrani Nayar-Gall

Greenhill in Greensboro, NC, will present Imprint, featuring works by Mathew Curran, April Flanders, Mark Iwinski and Indrani Nayar-Gall, on view from Jan. 31 through Mar. 27, 2014.

Imprint, curated by Edie Carpenter, presents four artists who are taking prints to a different level by utilizing printmaking techniques to create three-dimensional works. The four artists, Mathew Curran, April Flanders, Mark Iwinski and Indrani Nayar-Gall, conceive works that defy the confines of a frame or matrix that is the basis of traditional printmaking and work towards a three-dimensional presence in space. Following Greenhill’s 2008 survey of North Carolina printmakers, this exhibition examines the different ways contemporary printmakers create installations to address themes of social change and the vulnerability of the natural environment.

A sense of wild yet fragile nature is evident in the likenesses of deer and birds produced by artist Mathew Curran. Curran was born in England and moved to the United States as a teenager, where he later studied fine art and graphic design at UNC Greensboro. His stencil art captures the essence of street life and hip-hop culture in signature works that engage the viewer in the intricate process of their making, in which thousands of cuts are necessary to produce a single stencil. The exhibition includes stencils and works based on cut paper as well as images directly printed on the gallery walls. Curran’s unique and personal style makes use of forceful lines and subtle uses of background color. He rose to the forefront of the Raleigh, NC, arts scene exhibiting his works at SECCA and the North Carolina Museum of Art. He completed a commission at Duke University before moving to Los Angeles this year where he is producing new sculptural editions as well as continuing his stencil-based work.

Through layering, Western North Carolina artist April Flanders builds up volume in brilliantly colored print installations composed of groupings of forms taken from nature. Her installations often serve as cautionary tales such as “Outbreak Populations” in which plant forms appear to overrun gallery walls like a scientific experiment gone awry. Imprint will present two new installations based on monoprints addressing human impact on natural species. Flanders has held one-person shows in various galleries nationally and internationally including the Center for the Book Arts, in New York and the Anna Leonowens Gallery at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada. Flanders received her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from Arizona State University, and she has taught the art of printmaking for twelve years at various universities not only in the US but around the globe. She currently holds a full-time teaching position at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

For the past decade Durham, NC-based artist Mark Iwinski has hiked into old-growth forests across the United States to create prints from the stumps of downed trees. The direct printing method he developed to gather these “stump prints” utilizes the wood’s natural tannin or ink to produce monoprints or “ghost images” lifted from crosscuts of once towering trees on Japanese Kozo paper. The artist characterizes himself as a “historian and activist” and certain prints have been bound into an oversized book underlining the archival nature of his project. Other works are presented on wooden frames parallel to the floor recreating their original orientation in nature and lending them a sculptural presence. Iwinski is currently a North Carolina Arts Fellow and his one-person exhibition Terrains of Absence has been presented in New York City and at Flanders Art Gallery in Raleigh.

Charlotte, NC, artist Indrani Nayar-Gall combines intaglio processes with paper-cutting in new works examining the ritual traditions of her native India. A site-specific installation composed of hundreds of prints references the floor plan for a temple in a specific region of Andhra Pradesh in southern India where the artist observed the practice of religiously sanctioned child prostitution. After a trip to India in 2012 for the purpose of field research on the issue, Nayar-Gall met strong, independent women who had overcome all odds and made a life for themselves. The focus of her body of work then began to concentrate on the power of change and human resilience in new works combining tree forms with the figure which are also on view in Imprint.

Greenhill promotes the visual arts of North Carolina by engaging a broad community of artists, adults and children through dynamic exhibitions and educational programs while providing a platform for exploration and investment in art. Since its founding in 1974, the organization has presented and sold artwork of over 9,800 visual artists and engaged nearly one million visitors through free access to The Gallery, The Shop & ArtQuest, the award-winning education program for children & families.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call Greenhill at 336/333-7460 or visit (www.greenhillnc.org).

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