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Measured Perceptions APRIL KATZ
May 25, 2019 - July 13, 2019
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
Artist Statement for Measured Perceptions
During a 2015 trip to Spain, Katz encountered evidence of La Convivencia (the coexistence of Muslim, Jewish and Christian populations) in Medieval Spain that provided hope for our current time of vitriolic discourse. Measured Perceptions embraces the similarities and unique contributions of the varied cultures that follow the three Abrahamic religions and combines them with the human languages of arithmetic and geometry to symbolize the universal search for order and understanding.
The project includes the series Essential Patterns of Perception a progression of intaglio prints based on one of ten geometric structures that advance from one (a point) through ten (a decagon). The sequence conveys increasingly complex cognitive engagement with the environment. The Contemplation series includes the above plates inset within larger, mixed media monoprints that provide varied cultural and natural contexts. These prints begin as digital collages that incorporate photographic and drawn imagery. Additional painting, drawing and collaged paper tesserae create rich visual layering that parallels the overlay of cultural histories found in buildings like the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba or the synagogue in Toledo. These prints invite meditative examination inspired by a wish for a future of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and meaningful dialogue.
Artist Bio
April Katz received her M.F.A. degree from Arizona State University. She currently is Morrill Professor at Iowa State University where she has taught printmaking since 1999. For nineteen years she has organized the university’s annual international postcard print exchange. From 2004 – 2006 Katz served as president of the Southern Graphics Council. Her prints, which synthesize digital and traditional printmaking processes, are in numerous collections and have been exhibited throughout the US and recently in Portugal, Spain and China. She has presented papers for print, photographic and visual literacy professional national and international conferences.
Katz’s primary language and tool is the print whose vocabulary includes transfers, layers, seriality and variations on a theme. Printmaking is a dance whose movements of carving, scratching, etching, wiping and rolling she choreographs through varied thematic and visual lenses. Death of loved ones, serious illness and political discord are the forces that have shaken Katz to the core and led her to ask fundamental human questions about herself and her relationship to the world. She searches for connections between disparate elements to understand and convey their impact on current personal and cultural identity.
