Emily Gherard, "The Mothers # 6"
2022
Intaglio on plaster and paint on cedar with staples
ARTIST STATEMENT
I make large monochromatic drawings and wall sculptures built from the accumulation of lines of graphite, small pieces of wood stapled together. I derive the forms in my work from the gestures and postures of figurative paintings, with a particular focus on mother and child imagery. Recently, I have been working in response to the 20th-century German artist Käthe Kollwitz's etchings of mother figures hunching over their children. In these images, the mother's body forms a protective shelter that shields, but it is also supported by her children. This gesture of a person becoming architectural is the bases for how I abstract the figures in my work. I am interested in the idea that the work's emotional content can depicted through scale, form, and materials, existing without the pictorial image.
ARTIST BIO
Emily Gherard (b. 1979), is a Seattle-based painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and is best known for her process-based work built from the accumulation of repetitive marks. Gherard earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, and an MFA from the University of Washington Seattle, WA. She received the 2021 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, a 2006 PONCHO Special Recognition Award from the Seattle Art Museum, and the 2014 GAP Grant from Art Trust. She has participated in exhibitions at The Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, The Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA, and The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA. In addition, her work can be found in numerous collections, such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Swedish Medical Center, and Microsoft Permanent Collection. Gherard currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.
2022
Intaglio on plaster and paint on cedar with staples
ARTIST STATEMENT
I make large monochromatic drawings and wall sculptures built from the accumulation of lines of graphite, small pieces of wood stapled together. I derive the forms in my work from the gestures and postures of figurative paintings, with a particular focus on mother and child imagery. Recently, I have been working in response to the 20th-century German artist Käthe Kollwitz's etchings of mother figures hunching over their children. In these images, the mother's body forms a protective shelter that shields, but it is also supported by her children. This gesture of a person becoming architectural is the bases for how I abstract the figures in my work. I am interested in the idea that the work's emotional content can depicted through scale, form, and materials, existing without the pictorial image.
ARTIST BIO
Emily Gherard (b. 1979), is a Seattle-based painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and is best known for her process-based work built from the accumulation of repetitive marks. Gherard earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, and an MFA from the University of Washington Seattle, WA. She received the 2021 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, a 2006 PONCHO Special Recognition Award from the Seattle Art Museum, and the 2014 GAP Grant from Art Trust. She has participated in exhibitions at The Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, The Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA, and The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA. In addition, her work can be found in numerous collections, such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Swedish Medical Center, and Microsoft Permanent Collection. Gherard currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.
2022
Intaglio on plaster and paint on cedar with staples
ARTIST STATEMENT
I make large monochromatic drawings and wall sculptures built from the accumulation of lines of graphite, small pieces of wood stapled together. I derive the forms in my work from the gestures and postures of figurative paintings, with a particular focus on mother and child imagery. Recently, I have been working in response to the 20th-century German artist Käthe Kollwitz's etchings of mother figures hunching over their children. In these images, the mother's body forms a protective shelter that shields, but it is also supported by her children. This gesture of a person becoming architectural is the bases for how I abstract the figures in my work. I am interested in the idea that the work's emotional content can depicted through scale, form, and materials, existing without the pictorial image.
ARTIST BIO
Emily Gherard (b. 1979), is a Seattle-based painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and is best known for her process-based work built from the accumulation of repetitive marks. Gherard earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, and an MFA from the University of Washington Seattle, WA. She received the 2021 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, a 2006 PONCHO Special Recognition Award from the Seattle Art Museum, and the 2014 GAP Grant from Art Trust. She has participated in exhibitions at The Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, The Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA, and The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA. In addition, her work can be found in numerous collections, such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Swedish Medical Center, and Microsoft Permanent Collection. Gherard currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.