The Gallery at Dunia Announces

Darśana: Transcending Light
Proto-Photographic and Print Images
by Gail Erwin
April 29 through June 19, 2008

Nocturne 59
18" x 18"
cyanotype on fabric

The Gallery at Dunia presents “Darśana: Transcending Light,”an exhibit of limited-edition prints by Gail Erwin, an artist who lives and works in Maynard.

Quartet 77 (Red Peninsula)
16" x 16"
Van Dyke Brown, monoprint

Erwin applies monoprint and other techniques, some – such as cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, and solvent transfer – from the dawn of photography, to create richly layered and tactile images.

Mapscape 2005 (detail)
8" x 8"
handmade paper, collage

Gail Erwin’s work cannot be pigeonholed. “Nocturne 59,” from her Quartets and Variations series, combines the authenticity of photography with the formal balance of some abstract Japanese paintings.

Nocturne 62
12" x 12"
cyanotype on fabric

By contrast, her “Mapscape” installation consists of 500 eight-inch squares of handmade paper, each one as boldly expressive as a Frank Stella, yet somehow subsumed into a wall-sized mosaic that evokes video pixels under high magnification.

Variations 101
20" x 20"
cyanotype, Van Dyck Brown collage mounted on bookcloth

A constant in all of Erwin’s art is a macro-micro dynamic she creates, first seducing viewers with her graceful forms, and then haunting them with the details yielded by closer viewings.

Nocturne 55
7" x 7"
cyanotype on fabric

From the Artist's Statement

Ancient or historic processes form a core of my recent work. The use of the 19th century photo processes of Van Dyke Brown and Cyanotype printing gives images a sense of history and the passage of time.

Quartet 79 (Branch)
16" x 16"
cyanotype, etching

Hand papermaking, also an ancient process, is combined with alternative photo processes, creating textures and layers. Handmade paper is fragile yet deceptively strong, providing a metaphor for women’s lives.

I believe the artist uses the flexibility inherent in the processes to layer image upon image, fragment upon fragment, thereby achieving a synthesis of pattern, texture and abstraction.

Gail Erwin
April 2008

About the Artist

Gail Erwin lives and works in Maynard, Massachusetts. In addition to a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Gail Erwin holds an MS in Education from SUNY Oswego, a JD from Western New England College of Law in Springfield MA and a BA from William Smith College in Geneva, NY.

Her list of recent solo exhibits is extensive, and includes shows at Boston’s Kingston Gallery, Indian Hill Music Center in Littleton, Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord, and DeCordova Museum in Lincoln. She currently teaches art at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.

The Gallery at Dunia and Gail Erwin will donate 20% of the proceeds from the sales of Darśana artwork to the New England Wild Flower Society (www.newenglandwild.org), America’s oldest plant conservation organization, dedicated to protecting our natural habitats and native plants.