Grace Knowlton: Statement

Artist Statement

Grace Knowlton: Interior 01 - Anodized aluminum

Painting

I began my career as a painter in the 1960's, after studying with Kenneth Noland. I have been primarily known for my spherical sculpture, which I sometimes treated as painting in the round. Gradually, the spheres opened up, flattened into shards and returned to the wall as paintings. Currently, I am working on large canvases, hung in sets of four. These paintings, basically black and white, portray mismatched and layered objects and architectural elements which create a visual vocabulary. In my most recent work, I paint these disparate elements on anodized aluminum with dyes that are incorporated into the metal.

Grace Knowlton: Sneden's Landing, '00 - Sphere: Multi-media on coated aluminum

Sculpture

My sculptural work began with making.increasingly three-dimensional paintings, until one day, a painting became a painted sphere. I worked first in clay, then moved to concrete, sheet metal, styrofoam and various other materials. My first interest was in the closed form's sealed space, then in the form itseff. The possibilities of the surface, whether glazed, painted or patinaed was always important to me. Spherical forms gradually opened up, allowing a rich relationship between intemal -space and extemal surfaces.

Grace Knowlton: Interior Corner '01 - Digital Photograph

Photography

My photographs resemble spare, abstract drawings; realism viewed abstractly. These views of architectural space are intended to create a mood of quiet meditation. Working with a large format camera, I began photographing white interior corners, preferably with cracks and irregularities. Printing the photographs in platinum and palladium rather than silver gave the images great depth and tonal range. Recently, through the use of a computer, I have been combining and layering my images of interior comers, which present the viewer with shifting realities and uncertain depths.

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