Long View Gallery presents “Pattern Transformation”, by Sondra N. Arkin
August 23 – September 23, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 23, 6:30 – 8:00pm
Washington DC – Long View Gallery is pleased to announce Pattern Transformation,
an exhibition by local artist Sondra N. Arkin on Thursday, August 23,
2012, with a public reception from 6:30-8:00pm. The exhibit will remain
on view through September 23, 2012.
Sondra N. Arkin has spent years perfecting her encaustic
techniques through countless art experiments. Her process-driven work
requires bursts of concentration, hours of labor, and an unmatched focus
on repetitive tasks. The failures and successes of her experiments
provide invaluable data that have influenced the direction her work has
taken in Pattern Transformation.
In Pattern Transformation, Arkin builds upon her
mastery of wax to include the results of her experiments with both
shellac and walnut ink. The transparency of the wax and shellac combined
with the opaque walnut ink allows Arkin to build up layers of interest
through mark making. Her mark making techniques with the walnut ink are
traditional, but she has found inspiration in a less conventional mark
making tool – fire. Torching away portions of the shellac, or drawing
with fire, help to build depth through every layer.
The central works of Pattern Transformation
(Permutations Toward Infinity 1-50) offer a Mandelbrot fractal-like
beauty. Each group of nine images presents a virtually infinite
potential of visual patterns. Each grid, not just interchangeable but
rotatable to all four orientations, can be rearranged into a vast number
of aesthetically viable patterns—with the absolute permutations from
any single grid being over 95 billion.
Arkin has not strayed from the shapes and patterns of which we
have become accustomed, lines and circles still make up the bulk of her
markings. The patterns feel familiar yet the work is transformed. Her
experiments with shellac and walnut ink, and her ability to recreate
their successes, have taken her encaustic paintings to new heights.
Arkin’s new mark making techniques, the often-innumerable layers of
abstract patterns and the growth of her color palette each contribute to
the work’s transformation. Pattern Transformation establishes a new period in the encaustic work of Sondra N. Arkin.
Pattern Transformation is the first solo show for
Sondra N. Arkin since Long View Gallery’s re-opening in October of 2009.
Her work is included in public and private collections including
Bloomingdales, Washington, DC, the Copenhagen Residence through the Art
in Embassies Program, Copenhagen, Denmark and the Donatelli Corporation,
Bethesda, MD. Arkin received her MA from Florida Atlantic in 1984 and
currently lives and works in Washington, DC.
