Beverly Kedzior and
Yvette Kaiser Smith
Artist Statement by Beverly Kedzior
This body of work displays the constructs of an invented infinite space, as perceived through intensified and fictionalized light and color. To assemble these images, structures from diverse sources such as botanical and medical text books, cartoons and advertising are deconstructed and reinvented. Starting with sketches, the organic structures amass, combine and overlap to become a place located within the realm of an imagined inner landscape. As I work, the painting is alternately layered and simplified; the positive and negative space is explored. The painting process is emphasized by the use of traditional and non-traditional tools and printing techniques. The textures on all the work, including the works on paper are rich and varied due to my working methods, which include techniques such as masking, rolling, spraying and the use of texturing tools. There are heavy impastos as well as crackled surfaces. Paint has been dragged, sprayed, splattered and applied with instruments, including rollers, trowels, scrapers, adhesive applicators and pastry bags among others. The final paintings create new atmospheres that are the hybrids of science, memory and pop culture.
30 Cedar Lane, Lincolnshire, IL 60069,
Artist Statement by Yvette Kaiser Smith
I make large, wall-based, indoor abstract forms whose conceptual purpose is to articulate narratives of identity in the language of crocheted fiberglass and to redefine expectations of a sculptural object by unraveling preconceptions of materials, forms, and categories in art. The work is strongly footed in Post-Minimalism, Art Povera and process art. It refers to identity, community, and body in form, relationships, translucency, the cellular nature of its endless knotted strand, and the shadow that the lace casts as it respires from the wall.
Guided by specificity of narrative that deals with identity construction or community structures, I crochet continuous strands of fiberglass into large geometric shapes. These are formed and hardened with the application of polyester resin. Color is added to the resin prior to its application. The work often engages math, an underlying principle in all of life, as a structural foundation by utilizing the grid, prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, the numbers Pi and e, and Pascal's triangle.
The material language of crocheted fiberglass is found not only in the way the resin application controls, restricts, and gives freedom to the crocheted fiberglass cloth but also includes a vocabulary of traditional crochet forms (doily, edging), patterns, and stitches. The translation of narrative from spoken language to the language of crocheted fiberglass is the abstraction.
The process of crochet and the construction of identity both involve history, traditions, groups, constructs, patterns, memory, and layering and passing of time. All cultures seem to have their own lace tradition. If identity is a hybrid of our heritage, then lace is, as tradition of time, labor, and creativity, one tiny point of intersection that connects us all.
In summary, I make wall-based, indoor, translucent, durable, monumental lace that combines the past, the present, and multiple disciplines. A product of time-based manual labor that has been contemporized by the use of the industrial materials of fiberglass and polyester resin, mathematics, and the language of art and architecture.
2607 W. Augusta Blvd., Chicago, IL 60622, (773) 395-2981,