Lafayette Gallery Features: Gail Skudera, In Time, Out of Time: Woven Photo Collages

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) Jan. 25, 2016 — “The movement of tones between black and white in an old photograph can evoke in the viewer an inexpressive sensation,” says artist Gail Skudera, a Hackensack, N.J., native whose work featuring woven and collaged works on paper will be on view in an exhibition from Monday, Jan. 18 through Sunday, Feb. 21 in the Williams Center Gallery at Lafayette College, 317 Hamilton St., Easton. The exhibition and related events are free and open to the public.

An artist’s talk will take place Mon., Feb. 8, at noon in Williams 108. In addition, a reception and participatory workshop will be held Sunday, Feb. 7, 2 to 4 p.m., during which participants will create woven collage drafts. The workshop is free, preregistration is appreciated. The artist will also be a featured speaker at the monthly meeting of the Arts Community of Easton, Tues., Feb 9, 7:30 p.m., also in Williams 108.

Additional information about the workshop can be found at the gallery website, galleries.lafayette.edu, or by calling (610) 330-5361.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.

The selection of works from the past decade includes the recently completed Big and Little Women series, which consists of 12 woven photographic portraits based on the lives of women from the past century. Each portrait took one month to complete with the series spanning a year. The images have been drawn on, painted, measured, cut into strips, and rewoven on a floor loom—a symbol of domesticity and industry.

Also included is the mixed media Right Shade of Day begun during her recent artist’s residency at Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI). Skudera returns in February to continue her residency, working with student Coty West to complete The Tales of Bergen.

Skudera’s work is based on traditional textile processes combined with a painting background and love for vintage black-and-white photographs. Her collaged works combine pattern weave structures with photo-transferred images using off-loom weaving methods. She incorporates paint, washes, and glazes, thread and collected objects such as buttons and beads, and non-traditional printing processes to create complex images that focus on portraits or the human figure in various environments.

The images may be seen clearly at a distance or disappear into abstract surface patterns at close range. The complex, multi-layered works of art are as much about process as content.

In her new body of works on a loom, Skudera imprints paper with photographs and grids them like a weaving. Layers of paint and color glazes are applied to the surface creating shiny and matte portions. As the paper is cut into strips and inserted into the warp threads, decisions are made for the hand-picking of a pattern. The juxtaposition of the past—photographs—with the present references the passage of time.

Skudera holds a bachelor and a masters of fine arts from Northern Illinois University. She lived and worked in Chicago from 1981-94, in northern New York and central Pennsylvania from 1994-2010, and now lives and works in Maine.

The recipient of a visual artist fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she has also been awarded residencies at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa., and Westport Island, Maine. Her work is held in collections at International Collage Center, New York and Pennsylvania; Illinois State Museum; Baird & Warner Corporation, Chicago; and Medical College of Virginia.

Sponsored by Lafayette Art Galleries and the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College.

For more information, contact Michiko Okaya, director of art galleries, artgallery@lafayette.edu, visit Lafayette’s galleries, or go to Facebook.

Higher resolution photos are available, https://flic.kr/s/aHsksBTo5h

Kristine Y. Todaro

Director of Special Projects/Media Relations

Communications Div.

Lafayette College

Easton, Pa. 18042