Suzanne Nacha

Visual Artist

Posts from the ‘General’ category

Discovering Clay

SNacha_ceramics_mineralogic2016sm2image: ‘tethered’ (left) and ‘conveyor pair’ (right), ceramic sculpture, Loop Gallery 2016

Mar 21 2016 – I’ve always made sculpture alongside painting. Sometimes the two exist together (as if in conversation) and sometimes a painting will inspire the making of an object. Over the years I’ve experimented with additive sculpting, using plaster or wax to build form and even dabbled in some foundry projects, but I could never find a material that truly worked as an equivalent to my painting until I discovered clay.

For the past few years I’ve been learning as much as I can about ceramic sculpture and was happy to have finally exhibited some of these at Loop Gallery in Toronto this past January. The biggest help has been in taking classes with accomplished ceramicists whose background and studio work focus on sculpture. Lindsay Montgomery who teaches at the Gardiner Museum (and far beyond) has been an endless source of inspiration and knowledge; always offering a range of strategies for every project. Her work is based on painting and ceramics – extending to sculpture, installation and performance. It has been a great pleasure to make work as one of her students, alongside folks that range from absolute beginner to some of the most interesting emerging and established artists working in ceramics today.

Open Studio & 100 Prints

OS_printing

image: Daryl Vocat making it all happen, Jun 2013

Mar 18 2014 – A few years back I had the opportunity to do a Visiting Artist Residency at Open Studio. During this residency I produced a series of screen-prints that had a significant impact on my approach to image making.  Distilling my painted images through a process of creating coloured layers that are printed in different combinations (in an almost chance-like process) produced surprising results.  Since my goal in creating an image has always been to capture the essence of it – this ability to see many versions of the same image at different levels of complexity has become a really important method for scrutinizing my work.

I enjoyed this process so much in fact that last year I worked on a new Custom Print at Open Studio in collaboration with Daryl Vocat. One of the prints that resulted from this recent project will be part of Open Studio’s 100 Prints on May 15th 2014. This event is Open Studio’s major annual fundraiser where ticket holders draw numbers to choose original print works donated by Canadian Artists. 100 prints is as much of a must for art collectors as Open Studio’s Visiting Artist Residency is for artists.

International Print Center NYC

EmpireHazard_PatriotColors_detailJan 19 2014 – Heading to NYC this weekend for the opening of a group show I’m participating in at IPCNY.  The International Print Center New York is putting on a New Prints 2014/Winter exhibition featuring prints from US and International artists. The opening is January 23rd, 6-8pm and the show is up until March 12th.

Click here for IPCNY