NEWSLETTER
March 7 – April 10, 2020. Opening reception: Sat March 7, 4 - 6pm
Free and open to the public
Lake George, N.Y. – Through combined processes of printmaking, drawing, and sculpture, Katherine Chwazik creates layered architectural imagery from familiar surroundings of her hometown area in the Capital Region of Albany, NY. This recent work explores the meaning of home and place for herself, as well as current and former residents of Albany County.
Chwazik interviewed a number of regional residents, gathering memories and emotional impressions, visiting the homes themselves to make observational drawings. While the drawings become the structure of a piece, the residents’ recollections guide her goal to capture the mood and experience of their homes.
She says: “I use printmaking and sculpture to fluidly inform one another and to build hybrid objects. I construct spaces that reference the local and regional urban environment to evoke a sense of place. Many of the spaces I create are familiar and believable, but not factual or possible.”
Chwazik will exhibit series of etching-based wall sculptures and black and white woodcuts.
One of the works in the exhibition, “Smallbany,” is a 7-foot woodblock print depicting a cityscape composite of a number of Albany’s notable buildings. She says: “The title pokes fun at the city’s nickname while simultaneously highlighting how truly monumental some parts of the city can feel.”
Katherine Chwazik earned her M.A. from The College of Saint Rose, where she also completed her dual concentration B.F.A. in Art Education and Drawing and Painting. Her work was recently exhibited at Albany’s Architecture through Artists’ Eyes, Historic Albany Foundation, Albany; Algorithms, Scarlet Seven Fine Art Gallery, Troy, NY; Tchotchke, Nine Pin, Albany, NY; Fence Select, The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY; Impressive, Albany Barn, Albany, NY; and Compound Fragments, Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY. Her awards include a DEC Arts Grant / Individual Artist Commission in 2018 for Memory and Observation; A Mixed-Media Study of “Home", and a Juror’s Choice Award for BUILT, through Historic Albany Foundation, 2017.
This exhibition is funded in part by the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust; Mannix Marketing and Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation. The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse, corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets, Lake George, NY. The Courthouse Gallery hours during exhibitions are Wednesday through Friday 12 – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 4 pm, and all other times by appointment.
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COURTHOUSE GALLERY
1 Amherst Street, Lake George, NY 12845, (518) 668-2616
Image: Smallbany. 2019. Woodblock print, limited edition of three. 43” x 82”.