Solo Exhibition by Natasha Bowdoin Goes on View at VisArts Jan. 28

Bowdoin is Third Artist to Receive Quirk+VisArts Artist Residency

An exhibition of work by Natasha Bowdoin titled “Lunar Spring” will go on view at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond on Saturday, January 28. A public reception and artist talk will take place on Friday, February 3. Bowdoin’s talk begins at 5:30 p.m. and the reception runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Lunar Spring runs through March 12.

Bowdoin uses paint, cut paper and vinyl to create large-scale drawings, collages and site-responsive sculptural installations. She is known for her vibrant use of pattern and repetitious mark-making.

“We’re thrilled to have Natasha not only exhibiting her work in our space but making work here as well,” said Stefanie Fedor, executive director of the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. “Our vision, when we exhibit an artist’s work, is for him or her to make use of all the resources both the city and VisArts makes available. This is a great place to make art.”

For this solo exhibition, Bowdoin takes inspiration from literature’s magic realism and surrealism, including the short stories, “Distance of the Moon” by Italo Calvino and Bruno Schulz’s “Spring.” In three gallery settings, she imaginatively evokes what Schulz describes as “the inspired script” of spring, finding source material in the organic qualities of literature and the writers’ unique interpretations of natural processes.

Detailed ink drawings reference scientific depictions of the moon’s phases and the particulars of several insects are amplified to abstraction. Organic forms, calligraphic motifs and hidden text are layered throughout the exhibition.

Bowdoin is the third artist to benefit from a newly established partnership between the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and Quirk Hotel and Gallery. The Quirk+VisArts Artist Residency brings visiting artists in all stages of their careers to Richmond, where they can spend anywhere from two weeks to several months in residence at Quirk, with access to the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s studios and faculty. At the conclusion of their residency, artists will either exhibit work in VisArts’ True F. Luck Gallery or give a workshop, talk or artist demonstration at the Visual Arts Center.

Previous artists in residence include Leigh Suggs and Carli Holcomb. A solo exhibition of Holcomb’s work will open at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond on September 8 and run through November 12, 2017.

Bowdoin, who is on academic leave from Rice University where she is an assistant professor of painting and drawing, will be in residence throughout the month of January. During that time she will produce a series of works on paper as well as an installation that will occupy the first room of VisArts’ gallery. She recently collaborated with VisArts woodworking instructor Mark Rickey on a component of the installation.

The Quirk+VisArts Artist Residency is partially supported by a grant from the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation. Lenore Tawney was a fiber artist, and as such, the foundation supports the visual arts with a focus on craft media. The foundation’s board is particularly interested in programs that support emerging artists and improve public access and knowledge of the visual arts.