571 Projects is pleased to announce Passages & Portals: Mixed Media Works by Dorothy Simpson Krause, an online exclusive exhibition. Exploring the rich metaphorical possibilities of thresholds, Krause' works are a meditation on transitions: movement from one state to another, from light to dark, and ultimately, from life to death. Infused with drama, in this selection of work the artist overlays imagery of passage ways, doors, windows, and openings, with patterns abstracted from nature. The resulting works, on aluminum, copper, stone paper and lenticular, are arrestingly poetic. Running the gamut between the figurative and architectural, as in Pink Door, (UV flatbed print on Dibond, 24 x 24 in.) and the abstracted, as in Detail (mixed media print on metal, 24 x 24 in.) the works in this exhibition testify to this accomplished artist's masterful handling of materials and composition.
Cate McQuaid, art critic for The Boston Globe, has written of Dorothy Simpson Krause' work that "each doorway becomes a tense drama of light and dark (…) whether in a palace or basement, [she] creates mystical rhythms of shadow and light." A painter, collage artist and print maker, Krause incorporates digital mixed media into her art, combining images and textures, transferred to a variety of supports. Delving into the surreal through images of thresholds her work highlights the mystery of architectural space and light: doorways, windows, and hallways from which light either shines or recedes into blackness. Ethereal and menacing, her landscapes convey the poetry of space and light, alluding to spiritual transitions, and ultimately, life and death. As in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's haunting poem "Kubla Khan" beauty is underscored with violence, potential and real. These deserted passages evoke the threat of the impending disappearance of civilization as we know it, through the effects of global climate change and rising sea levels. In "Sinuous Rills" (pigment transfer with mixed media to aluminum, 24 x 24 in.) ghostly blue tinged stairs lead toward a dark entrance, while a tracery of vegetation lies on the surface. Using the luminous and reflective qualities of the aluminum support, this work beckons the viewer from a place of brilliant light into an inky unknown. Working at a crossroads between cutting-edge digital processes and traditional methods, Krause is a pioneer in the use of digital media in art making, while maintaining her roots as a painter and collage artist. For one series in this body of work she uses a process that resembles Polaroid emulsion transfer. In another series she transfers monoprints onto uniquely prepared surfaces such as brushed aluminum and copper.
In addition to being Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts College of Art, Krause is also a member of Digital Atelier, an artists' collaborative. Her work has won many awards including the Smithsonian/ComputerWorld Technology in the Arts Award (1997), and the Kodak Innovator Award (2000). Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including The Landing Gallery (Rockland, ME); Evos Art Institute (Lowell, MA); the Attleboro Museum of Art (Attleboro, MA); The Judi Rotenberg Gallery (Boston, MA); 571 Projects (New York City). Her work is in many museum collections including The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Dalarna Museum (Dalarna, Sweden); The Smithsonian Museum of American Art (Washington, DC); Art Complex Museum (Duxbury, MA); State Museum (Novosibirsk, Russia); and The DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Framingham, MA). Krause was selected as the inaugural Helen M. Salzburg Artist-in-Residence at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University (2012).
