Claire Oswalt: Dawn Chorus

Rebecca Camacho Presents is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Austin based artist Claire Oswalt.

Titled Dawn Chorus, Oswalt’s mixed media practice encompasses paper collage, sewn canvas paintings and weavings. Fluid across medium and defined by a strong emotional sense of color and a sensitive understanding of form and perspective, Oswalt’s serene works belie the intricacies of their construction.

Rooted in collage and an organic, experimental approach to shape, Oswalt’s process begins with small paintings on paper. Sourcing from these works, Oswalt employs a series of quick movements, continuously tearing and adjusting until a clear form emerges, and is then refined, oscillating between hard geometric lines and abstract figuration. The improvisation of the works on paper is converse to their translation to canvas and tapestry; the exactitude required to shift scale and flatten the multilayered surface to a single plane and vantage point being precise and calculated.

For paintings on canvas, Oswalt again culls from her own pool of source material, using a paper study as her guide. Elements of raw and painted canvas are pieced together, stretched and re-shaped, to compose a uniform surface. Structural stitched seam lines establish architecture within the work, delineating precise edges against a nuance and undulation in pattern and depth of color created by diluting acrylic paint to a watercolor consistency.

With clear evidence of mark and hand Oswalt’s work straddles limit and expanse. Physical environment is a touchstone, an ongoing reference point, channeling the spirit and visceral response to her own place and time; the life of the art and the life of the artist being inherently intertwined.