Claire Oswalt: HOLY SMOKES

Rebecca Camacho Presents is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and collages by Austin, TX based artist Claire Oswalt. Known for subconscious-driven explorations on paper that are then meticulously rescaled to sewn canvas duplicates, her second presentation at the gallery, titled Holy Smokes, examines the origins of Oswalt’s musings. The resulting works become an iteration of the very themes from which they were composed – time and the ordering of chaos.

Claire Oswalt’s process begins on paper as a collection of individual marks made quickly and haphazardly, at different times, during different moods. These punctuations of moments are then thrown into an ever-evolving pile of scraps, before making their way into a collaged composition that becomes a temporal record of past and present - where time bumps up against itself, overlaps and conceals, and ultimately create a single, compressed image. The very basic and ubiquitous idea that the individual becomes part of a greater whole is at the foundation of Oswalt’s practice. In this light, the work reflects personal and societal disquiet, as well as the artists solace and congenial contemplation of that disquiet.

In contrast to their more cerebral formation, the architecture of Oswalt’s paintings is refreshingly present. Seams are principal, overtly highlighting the idea of piecing, falling apart, and coming back together. A suite of three works titled Four Arpeggios serve as thematic markers throughout the exhibition. Straddling abstract figuration and more geometric patterning, the pieces sit at the intersection of both Oswalt’s conceptual and visual practice. Akin to cell animation or storyboarding, Four Arpeggios depict tumbling movement and the inevitable passing of time. A grid of twelve isolated units, in four rows, each constructed from the same three shapes of fabric, creates a new composition in each square based on the positioning and relationship of the pieces to one another. The work documents perspective; ever moving, graceful yet uncontrolled, reflecting the position of the viewer as well as that of the maker.

While the exhibition is anchored by the Four Arpeggios, Oswalt’s lyrical figurations remain a strong presence. Adapting a complex mosaic of forms into fluid, vibrant representations of interior and exterior domestic landscapes, Oswalt again embraces the part to the whole. Informed by disparate doings - Japanese graphics, classic cartoons, clouds, sharp noises – the resulting smooth and precise canvases are transformed and transformative.