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| Goldsleger's work is currently on display at the Georgia Museum of Art |
Cheryl Goldsleger, a native of Philadelphia,
received her training there, in Rome and in St. Louis before coming south to
teach and to create. Many viewers have responded to her early work (which is
architectonic and features numerous empty chairs scattered throughout
physically impossible buildings) with feelings of desolation. Is the viewer
encountering the aftermath of a party or meeting or something post-apocalyptic?
To Goldsleger, however, these spaces are just that: spaces.
Although “construction” is a word rarely used
in the context of “fine” art (outside constructivism), it’s a good locus for
Goldsleger’s process. The artist utilizes an inherently layered approach and
has experimented extensively with 3D printing since the mid-1990s. Starting
with encaustic (hot-wax) painting, she built layers of color and line on the
supports. Wanting to investigate further the idea of built space, she built her
paintings out from the wall by incorporating printed architectural models. The
3D-printing process Goldsleger uses dates from the early 1990s and creates wax
objects. Blending these wax objects with encaustic painting was a natural
progression.
Interest in architectural and construction
plans brought a renewed interest in the gesture and act of drawing, as seen in
the works currently on view at the Georgia Museum of Art. They began as large
panels of stretched canvas, which Goldsleger primed until they were comparable
to a traditional paper surface. The resulting drawings can be displayed without
protective glazing and offer a much larger scale beyond the traditional
limitations imposed by papermaking.
The works on view at the museum originated in a
2012 project with the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D.C.
Goldsleger began the series with archival blueprints of the academy, at a time
when it was undergoing restoration to return the building to its original form.
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue drafted the original plans, and Goldsleger was able
to examine critically not only the plans, but also building reports, invoices, bills
and correspondence. She steeped herself in the history of the building to such
an extent those involved with the physical restoration contacted her for
information!
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| Details from Goldsleger's work |
That said, these works are not literal plans of
the building. Goldsleger has abandoned the pristine skin that is the hallmark
of contemporary spaces to reveal more complicated environments. Her layers of
graphite build a “poetry of lines in space and a geometry of analytical
spaces,” as she writes. The works invite us to consider how space impacts us,
how it unconsciously can force us to behave in certain ways, fostering or
prohibiting actions and ideas.
These two works will be on view in the main
lobby of the museum until July 23. You can learn more about the artist and her
work here.
--
Joseph Litts
Assistant to the Director
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