Paper has been in use for over two thousand years, first as a surface for important writings and then becoming more commonplace for printed materials available to the general public. As the uses of paper have evolved, artists have turned to paper for drawings, prints, and paintings; pushing the medium further by folding and deconstructing paper into three-dimensional objects or using paper pulp. Barrett Art Center’s current exhibit explores the medium of paper as an artistic medium through a national juried show, Pushing Paper.
Paul Wong, master papermaker and former artistic director of Dieu Donné, served as the juror for this national exhibit selecting 45 artists from 700 submissions. Wong described the process in his juror statement: “I looked at the intent of the exhibition and didn’t want to exclude in my selection any media that was submitted, hoping to represent the best of what I found exemplary, albeit attractive to my vision.”
As you enter the first room in the exhibit, you cannot miss Memory is a Ghost, Leah Hamel’s paper re-creation of a bed and coverlet; or Emanuelle Schaer’s, paper mâché sculpture, An Isolated Perspective. Thom Williams repurposed folded photo paper for Catch The Wave. There are also a number of smaller pieces exhibited salon style that deserve attention, for instance, Christine B. Miller’s narrative graphite drawing on paper featuring skulls and hands, brings to mind outsider artworks.
In the next gallery room, Michelle Samour’s piece, Eye Aggregation, was created using pigmented abaca fibers. The sculpture features layers of the fibers bound together in circular shapes, resulting in an object that appears feminine, including the glass case that could belong in a boudoir.
Jessica Elena Aquino’s wall-mounted paper sculpture, Abundance II, was created with recycled paper towels. The organically shaped piece rises up the gallery wall like a cyclone.
Tayler Allen-Galusha received the Juror’s Award for Boundless, an installation that takes over the far gallery wall. What appears to be a castle door and brick archway has been created with a set of deconstructed National Union Catalogs.The door is shut and locked, perhaps to safeguard the secrets held within. In his artist statement, Allen-Galusha commented that, “books are much more than just the paper and glue that makes them, they are places to be, puzzles to solve and portals to knowledge.”
The back gallery continues the exploration of paper. One of the standouts in this space is Lennox Commissiong’s portrait, 2pacalypse, made with mosaic-size color aid paper. The artist on this series: “These African-descended men lived by strong ideals, faced great adversity, and refused to bend to the demands of societal power structures… My homage in small dots of color represents the many lives they have touched across various races and cultures and their political legacies.”
Curator Paul Wong commented on this exhibit: “Paper can be a material we take for granted in our daily routine; something that is becoming invisible; or at best, where we appreciate and collect it in the form of these aspiring artistic expressions.”
This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! magazine August 24, 2018.
Pushing Paper was on exhibit at Barrett Art Center through September 22, 2018.
All artworks are courtesy of the artists and copyright remains with the artists.
Moira Williams exhibits Matters of Care, featuring a stack of cannon-ball size soil filled with positive bacteria. The artist has researched Mycobacterium vaccae, known as the ‘happy bacteria’ living in soil and invites all who pass to take one home to share. Beth Haber’s installation To Be Written shows four paired slate tablets placed on podiums supported by the remains of four ash trees in a compass formation. Visitors have the opportunity to write messages, which will then be wiped clean by the natural process of rain, wind, or over-writing, suggesting that we have the power to start a new movement that considers nature first.
Continuing upward, 
The artist has reimagined the entire small floor as a parlor, perhaps inspired by the 1901 photo when parlors were a means of civil discourse. The walls have been papered in a moody dark forest scene with birds and forest plants – the settee has an elaborate snake coiled, ready to strike. The table has been set for tea with a tea set that has also been elaborately decorated with the dark, flora, and fauna of the jungle. The artists’ work is influenced by her native country, Columbia, along with the symbolism of 19th Century opulence and what it took from nature.
took over the entire space. The glass viewers placed in front of the windows invited viewers to look down over the scenery below – the glass created a funhouse viewpoint of the scenery below, reinforcing the idea of being in another world. 
The artists shared this additional information about this work in their interview: “The stairwell allows for a slow and intimate reading of the work as the viewer ascends or descends the stairway. Repetition is a thread that runs through all our work, from drawings to installation. We feel that when you are dreaming about something you think about it over and over, sometimes for years.”
Altogether, eight artists are exhibiting work that could be wildly diverse without this premise. For instance, in Jinkook Hwang’s “Sushi Nam Yeo” series, rice is seen as the object of happiness and love, stemming from his cultural background. In “Couple Sushi,” the artist draws a man and woman resting on a bed of rice that has been magnified to signify its importance in his life.
