art

The Island Series by Sunhee Kim Jung

On a recent trip to Seoul for a joint exhibition with Sunhee Kim Jung, I was asked what I most admired about South Korea. My answer was the connection between architecture and nature. The mountains surrounding Seoul, the trees, palaces, temples, traditional as well as contemporary architecture seemed connected – integrated.

After returning, I see Sunhee’s work exploring nature and our relationship to it in a new way.

Her series named The Island painted during the height of the pandemic is inspired by the Transom windows in her home. (The primary purpose of the transom window is to increase natural light. )

In this series, the viewer peers through the narrow window or “picture frame” to view nature.

Even when we are not in nature, the idea of it can create a sense of peace in the midst of solitude. Sunhee creates a visual poem by using color symbolically to represent different emotions that working together – create a haven for the soul.

I am please to announce that Sunhee’s Island series will be on exhibit at the Goodwin House – Alexandria from March 2 – April 11, 2023.

The Island Series paintings are available through Distinct Studios. Please visit Sunhee’s artist page to view details and to inquire about availability. Thank you for reading!

Transom Window at The National Contemporary Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Window, National Contemporary Museum of Art

National Contemporary Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea. Photo Credit: Mary Welch Higgins

By Mary Higgins|2023-03-01T00:05:32+00:00February 28, 2023|

Slow Light Series by Chee Keong Kung

Mclean based artist, Chee Keong Kung was born and raised in Singapore where the rich diversity of the culture continues to influence the development of his art. His process defined by exploration and experimentation has resulted in an evolving body of work.

Within the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, he has developed a reputation as a painter whose works display a vast sense of light-filled space and dynamism through the use of geometry and mark making. This body of work was just the beginning of his development.

His work has pushed beyond the boundary of the canvas as he moves his paintings off the wall into the three dimensional space. He works in series where he extends an idea through multiple pieces. The Slow Light series are mixed media assemblages that utilize spontaneous mark-making on the surface of the wood with metal being added as a mark in 3D space.

Works from the Slow Light series are available through distinctstudios.com on Chee’s DS artist’s page.

By Mary Higgins|2023-02-24T18:54:33+00:00February 23, 2023|

Devotional Icon Series by Theresa Martin

Theresa Martin is an artist based in Arlington, Virginia with the ability to create collages with a poignancy that evokes memory as well as mystery.

Her influences include echoes of Jospeh Cornell, Kurt Schwitters, and Lenore Tawney. Using “found” portraits, she creates halos from numbers and symbols and thereby transforms the work into a secular devotional icon.

As a graduate of the Corcoran in the mid-80’s, Theresa has honed her creative skills utilizing a wide range of media. Most recently she has been experimenting with open source AI tools into her work.

The collages in the video are available through distinctstudios.com. You can see the collection of additional available work at her DS Artist’s page.

Thank you for reading!

By Mary Higgins|2023-02-23T20:52:46+00:00February 22, 2023|

The Ostinato and Coda Series by Sarah J. Hull

The Ostinato and Coda Series by Fiber and Conceptual Artist Sarah J. Hull
Exhibition Dates: July 5, 2022 through August 15, 2022
Exhibit Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday July 30, 2022, 2-4PM

Distinct Studios Fine Art is pleased to present Sarah J. Hull’s Ostinato and Coda series in the Small House Gallery of Goodwin House in Alexandria, Virginia in July and August of 2022.

Sarah has a background in architecture, science and visual art. She received her BA in Architecture from Wesllesley College with pertinent course work at M.I.T. Her varied background informs her work including her explorations of music.

In her art, she explores the rhythmic variation in our daily lives. Using natural fibers and hand embroidery stitches, each work explores it’s “objectness” with the tension created between hand-stitched materials and the structure of the underlying grid. The resulting work creates a mediative presence.

In her process, she begins with a concept that has has inspired her. She then follows that idea in a series of works that create an iteration of the theme. The Ostinato series demonstrates this process elegantly. In music, an Ostinato is a short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition, sometimes slightly varied. A rhythmic Ostinato is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern. In the Ostinato series by Sarah, she uses the concept of repetition with slight variation to create fiber based works that hold their own as single works but displayed together form a visual melody.

Sarah currently lives and works in Washington DC. She is active in the art community through the District of Columbia Art Center (DCAC),
nationally through the New York based National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), and internationally through the UK based Society for Embroidered Work (S.E.W.). Currently, she is enrolled in the Royal School of Needlework’s Certificate & Diploma program and was a member of the 2019 – 2020 DCAC Sparkplug cohort. Most recently, she successfully presented an independent solo exhibition of her most recent series The Topologicals at Studio 1469 in Washington DC and was one of the artists in Distinct Studios first group exhibition in 2022, Before, During, After at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virgina.

In the Studio

Photo Credit: Oliva Weise

By Mary Higgins|2022-07-11T22:41:30+00:00July 11, 2022|

Monotype and the Art of Adjoa J. Burrowes

Changing Current

Monotype, 15 x 22 in

A print is a work of art that can be created on a surface like wood, metal, stone or glass and then printed on a press, by using a roller or even pressed by hand.

The monotype is a printmaking technique that lends itself to invention. Unlike other techniques such as lithography or etching where an image is fixed into the surface or “matrix”, an artist works with inks on a surface likes glass or metal. Because the image is not fixed, the artist can work with the materials by layering, incising into the ink, wiping and reapplying ink until the impression is pulled. When the artists runs the plate through a press or adds pressure to the plate by hand, the resulting print is a unique work of art.

The connecting thread through all of Adjoa J. Burrowes work is an intimacy with materials and invention through exploration and radical experimentation. The perfect creative process for a technique like monotype. Her use of materials is also intertwined with her themes of identity and the anxieties inherent in contemporary times. The reclaimed plastic used to create texture and layering in monotypes like “ Winds of Change”, “Behind the Eight Ball” and Run Down and Run Over” echo her concerns for the climate crisis and the damage wrought by overconsumption. Her hand cut stencils with spirals forms, and what appears to be scratching into the ink in her recent monotype “Changing Current” brings us back to a sense of wonder and admiration for the beauty of nature. It reminds us of the cycles of life and provide a glimmer of possibility and hope in the future.

Reference

Degas, A Strange New Beauty, Jodi Hauptman, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016

To see other monotypes by Adjoa J. Burrowes visit her artist’s page.

By Mary Higgins|2021-12-02T15:23:11+00:00November 28, 2021|