Mary-Ann Kokoska’s recent work and creative research focuses on currents of air in our atmosphere – specifically the appearance, movement and scientific significance of clouds. These works are manifested in the form of large wall size drawings that often take the form of collage installations.
Clouds are nature’s way of drawing in the sky, and reflect the physics of what is going on above us. In these drawings Kokoska calls attention to their beauty and their power. The latter in particular interests the artist as awareness and concerns over climate change escalate. High levels of pollutants that are expelled into the atmosphere as a consequence of our industrialized society have resulted in altered cloud formations in some instances. Now more than ever it is crucial that public awareness and sustained thought is devoted to ensuring the climatic future of our planet, from the scientific as well as the artistic community.
“My creative practice is heavily invested in the medium and act of drawing, its directness creates such a “creative vector” that it suggests a complexity of conceptual possibilities. These I construct, probe and unravel in the creative process. I pay particular attention to the material manifestations of memory and imagination in the form of sketchbooks, notebooks and pattern books. In times when such traditional processes are neglected in place of new technology, these written and drawn observations continue to be important to me. My approach allows a cognitive mimesis that operates mindfully and speculatively through seeing, thinking, relating and remembering. It is about looking at and looking through the subject at hand. The act of construction develops concurrently with the act of drawing. Paper is cut away or added in an unrestricted manner allowing the work to grow and assume its own shape. The repetitive act of drawing and redrawing grows into a rhythmic expanse and a multiplicity of marks which are often in the form of a ‘gesture’, a movement that accentuates my body. Throughout I see my role as negotiating between surface facts and what lies beneath; the less tangible layer of sensory and emotional experience. It is about how I engage with the world around me. As such, my subjects have frequently been found in landscape and nature. In the past this has led me to investigate currents of water with works such as Whirlpool, Offshoot, and Surfacing. Overall the resulting images maintain an openness, are never quite fixed and question pre-existing notions of ‘finish’, this resulting work is equally about my presence, my process and as well as my subject”.
Mary-Ann Kokoska is a lecturer and Associate Professor of Drawing at Colorado State University and has exhibited extensively across Canada and the United States. This exhibition will run alongside a series of drawing symposiums that will be held at Swansea Metropolitan University. This exhibition is also a part of Elysium Gallery’s series of Sublinear: Perspectives on Drawing exhibitions (the first being held at Elysium in June/July earlier this year) and will culminate in a major exhibition of contemporary Welsh artist’s drawings in Colorado in 2014.
More information about the artist can be seen at www.maryannkokoska.com
Private view / Golwg Breifat
Friday 18th November 2011 7 – 9.30PM
Gwener 18fed Tachwedd 2011 7 – 9.30YP
Exhibition continues until 23rd December 2011
Arddangosfa yn parhau tan 23ain Rhagfyr 2011
Open Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5PM
Amserau agor Mercher – Sadwrn 12 – 5YP
Admission free / Mynediad yn rhad ac am ddim
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