Art spans many different mediums, from pencil to textiles and ink. All of them were featured in Public Space One’s latest exhibition, “Drawn Between: Possibility and Inevitability.”
Curated by artist Jeremy Chen, this exhibit features drawings by four artists: Jen P. Harris, R. Kauff, Kathranne Knight, and Ajdin Kulić. According to Chen, the exhibit takes its title from a statement by artist William Kentridge that drawing is always hovering between possibility and inevitability.
Chen met Kauff and Harris at an Intro to Drawing class he was holding here in Iowa City. They were guest speakers at his class and gave him the idea to do a project involving drawing.
“I wanted to talk to these artists more because it gave me so many ideas about drawing, and it gave me so many questions about drawing,” Chen said. “Wondering what drawing is, what it does, how I use it, how other artists use it.”
Drawn Between is a complex and colorful exhibit. Each artist’s works are displayed on separate walls. Yet collectively, they meld into a beautiful wave of color. Along with featuring various mediums, the artists’ works display a range of colors and unique patterns.
Kulić’s works are made from different textiles with rich hues centered around the theme of life. Their most notable work is a piece entitled “whirl-pile/wishing pool for seeds,” a textile square consisting of a rich, deep red circle settled on a warm brown background that includes date pits as one of its media.
“This exhibit made me think about evolution,” Kulić said. “Personal evolution as well as artistic evolution and creative evolution.”
Knight’s works center around themes of light with bright, vibrant colors. One of her works, “RISO Thinking, Rolling Landscape with Connector Holes,” reminded me of a delicate pink sunrise, the bright yellow sun drawing my eyes in immediately. In her works, every dot and line serve a purpose, and I could see each one. Harris chose graph paper, which makes for an interesting medium. Their works consist of squares of bright color that make complex, colorful patterns on the paper. In the middle of each of their works, I could spot an outlined figure; most notably in “untitled (bird),” which shows a bird outlined in silver poised to fly.
“For me, drawing is also the ground that everything else stands on,” Harris said. “It’s also the approach that I take when I’m working with paint or with yarn. I’m also drawing with it.”
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In their works entitled “memo drawings,” artist R. Kauff focuses on the art form of writing, using phrases such as “WHY WAIT W/ HY WAIT WHY/ WHY WAIT W/ HY SUCH WEI,” letting the audience’s minds take in the words and fill in the incomplete phrases.
While traveling between the two rooms, a table offers take-home prints by each artist in the styles of the works displayed in the exhibit.
“For me, [this exhibit] is a way of thinking, a way of understanding my thought process and then reflecting on that and noticing how it can change,” Harris said. “It’s just such a powerful experience to have.”
As part of the exhibit, free public drawing workshops will be offered from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Mar. 1.
“I would like [the audience] to appreciate how each of these artists is focused on drawing and very committed to their drawing practice,” Chen said. “Also, expanding ways that drawing works for them, ways that drawing can be for all of us.”
A colorful, reflective exhibit, “Drawn Between” reminds viewers of the power of a blank canvas and the simple medium and shows us what happens when we draw.
“Drawing is so accessible, and it is such a human practice,” Kulić said. “I hope [the exhibit] helps people catch their breath and reconnect with their bodies.”