Sunday, August 27, 2017

Cynthia Back at WPG

August 31 - September 24, 2017
Reception Saturday, September 2, 2-5 pm
Artist's Talk: 3 pm

In Naturally, Cynthia Back presents new reduction woodcuts inspired by both travel and her immediate environment. She is immersed in nature: from a window, walking in it, standing and listening to its sounds, watching shadows and colors dance across water and foliage. Her sense of the natural world is life-affirming, healing, immersive, and contemplative. Design and abstract qualities enthuse. Inspiration is found in the excitement of seeing a familiar place take on a new aura, the changes of season and weather, and the scale of subject, from the immediate found at one's feet to sweeping panoramas. The inescapable intrusion of human-made landscapes and the impact of climate change also becomes part of the motivatiion for her work.
In the autumn of 2016 Cynthia was privileged to be a resident at the Nordic Artists' Centre in Dale, Norway. Streams, ponds, fjords, and the sounds of rushing water were ever present. The pure air and colors, play of light across woods and streams, and freshness of the environment resulted in a series of reduction prints using two to four woodblocks. Many are included in this exhibition.
Cynthia Back is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation; residencies to Women's Studio Workshop, Blue Mountain Center, Acadia National Park; and fellowships to The Nordic Artists' Centre Dale, Norway; The Ballinglen Arts Foundation Ltd., Co. Mayo, Ireland, Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, The Cill Rialaig Project, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and The MacDowell Colony. Her work is included in numerous private and public collections, including The Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Newark Public Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and The New-York Historical Society.