Event
Barbara Hocker: Downstream
Downstream is an exhibition of sculptural paper works by artist Barbara Hocker. Her work explores nature, creating experiential installations and pieces that engage the viewer in a serene manner.
From her artist statement:
Viewers have often told me that my work is very peaceful, quiet, and serene. I think this comes from my love of being alone in the woods or at the shore and trying to bring that feeling to my art making. My ongoing practices of Tai Chi/meditation and study of East Asian metaphysics and aesthetics also inform my art practice. Yin and yang, being and nonbeing, stillness and movement, light and dark, sea and sky, surface and depth, artist and viewer, self and nature – I am interested in exploring how one can see beyond polarities to sense the invisible and mysterious unity underlying them.
Says Visual Arts Coordinator Neil Daigle Orians, “Part of what makes Barbara’s work so fascinating is the forms and structures she utilizes to convey her imagery. By utilizing books as an artform, she’s tapping into the history of language and the culture of story. Her flatworks exploit the flexibility of the medium, taking digitally printed images and crafting painterly compositions that mimic the fibrous nature of her kozo papers.”
About the Artist
Barbara Hocker is a Connecticut native with extensive experience creating and exhibiting work including solo shows and projects in Hartford, New Haven, Newport, and Boston. She has work in several corporate and private collections, including the permanent collection of The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan and several related hospitals in New York and New Jersey. Awards received include an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Greater Hartford Arts Council, a Creation of New Work Initiative Grant from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, and an Artist Resource Trust Fellowship from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. She holds a degree in Fibers from Syracuse University’s College of Visual & Performing Arts and attended Cranbrook Academy of Arts. Barbara lives in Bolton, Connecticut and maintains a studio in the Arbor Arts Center in Hartford. Her art process has been informed by her practice of Yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong for more than 25 years.
Featured image: Woven Water XXII (detail) – 2018, 23″ x 90″, pigment print, monotype, rice paper, encaustic medium
