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“Bleak Beauty” at Prographica Opening this Week

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Bleak Beauty At Prographica

 Invitation courtesy of Prographica

January and February can be harsh times in the turning of the year. The New York Times just had an article titled “January is the Cruelest Month” about our internal clocks and the moon and how we can blame it on the world, the moon and the weather, and it’s all real and not just human weakness. (What a relief. I thought it was just me…..) This exhibit takes bleakness and turns it on its head to show you its stark, resilient and imaginative beauty. As well as a work in charcoal, above, I will be showing five prints in various degrees of contemplative and exuberant color. Hope to see you there!

Iskra Fine Art Upcoming Shows and Publications

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I am starting the year with numerous shows all within the next three months. I will post reminders of openings here as they come up, but for those who want advance notice, here is the list of what’s up between now and April. I hope you will be able to stop by and see the work in person!

Prographica Fine Works on Paper: “The Bleak View”: I will have five prints and a drawing in this show. A perfect theme for this time of year in the Northwest, when you either find the loveliness in 100 shades of gray or die trying. The show runs from February 2-March 9, opening TBA.

The Elegant Scaffold Construction Site Photograph
“The Elegant Scaffold,” Photograph, 16″ x 16″, © Iskra Johnson

Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, on Bainbridge Island: “New Media: Digital Art”: I will have four pieces covering a range of botanical and industrial themed-work in this invitational exhibit. The show runs from March 20- April 22, opening reception April 5.

The Reeds Transfer Print
“The Reeds,” 1/2 ev, 22″ x 30″ paper size, 16″ x 21″ image size

Painters Under Pressure at Phinney Gallery: A group show with my print salon.  The show runs from April 3-May 1, opening reception April 12 from 7-9 PM. I expect to have a variety of sizes and themes for this exhibit, possibly including new experimental typographic prints from The Wailing Wall. This will be our first group show in many years, and I am very excited about it. If you would like to keep up with PUPs do check out our Facebook page.

EXIT/NoExit, experimental typography
“EXIT/No Exit,” experimental typography, © Iskra Johnson

Additionally,  SAM Gallery will have four of my new large prints from Construction/Reconstruction on display in February as part of the rotating collection. It has been exhilarating to see how scale changes the work, particularly when the themes are architecture and space.

In the world of publications, I am very excited to be in two books this year. Tom Hoffmann’s Watercolor Painting will have its official launch party at Gage Academy Friday January 18, 6-8 PM. In conjunction with the book signing the Steele Gallery at Gage will be exhibiting Tom Hoffmann’s work along with that of contributors to the book in “Watercolor: Thoughtfulness to Spontaneity.” I will have a piece on display from my series of expressive botanical paintings.

This past summer I explored the wildly inprovisational world of cyanotype, and an image from that series will be published in Jill Enfield’s upcoming “Jill Enfield’s Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes: Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques” from Focal Press. I will post a link to the book when it is published, in June. You can read about my experience with cyanotype here, in the post “Three Days in the Sun….”

Because so many shows are happening in a short period of time I will send this summary out to those who are on my email mailing list as a separate newsletter, but suggest you follow me here at my blog or on the Iskra Fine Art Facebook page for updates and reminders. I will limit the number of individual event invites as I know people are overwhelmed by email these days.

Happy New Year, keep the creativity flowing!