March 1 - April 2, 2023

Opening Reception: Friday, March 3, 6-8 pm

Christine Kyle: “Familiar Challenges”

Vivian Pratt: “Beyond the Image”

Christine Kyle: “Container” (detail), beeswax, resin, pigment on wood, 20” x 20”

Christine Kyle: “Familiar Challenges”

Kyle makes peculiar, mixed media, wall pieces that evoke a sense of familiarity while resisting categorization. To challenge assumptions, push boundaries, and honor the messiness of nuance is the focus of her work. Things are not what they seem to be.

Kyle explores the play of movement and tension between image, form, line and space ­—to blur these distinctions is to challenge the viewers’ assumptions about the drawn line and the sculptural edge, the 2D and the 3D image. 

 

Vivian Pratt: “Untitled 2201,” 30" x 23", pigment print and acrylic, 2022

Vivian Pratt: “Beyond the Image”

I work intuitively, using both paint and digital editing. Images evolve, guiding me until an organic form emerges, almost real but open to interpretation – hoping to inspire contemplation and personal meaning.

I start with wet paint, allowing the paint to move and surprise me with intriguing textures and forms.  Taking the image to the computer, I modify it, looking for possibilities and patterns, colors that speak to each other, moving, distorting and combining, until I find a satisfying composition. 

But abstraction is not enough. I’m in search of a form that almost seems natural but not quite; imagery that is both familiar and mysterious.  My work often appears three dimensional and I emphasize this by giving the finished piece texture and depth. 

I don’t name my work, because I want it to remain open to the imagination and to invite meaning beyond the image.