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international drawing annual 8 exhibition-in-print
online resource





Barbara Blacharczyk
Chicago, Illinois


blacharczyk@sbcglobal.net

www.blacharczyk.com

 




detail image

statement

Morphology is the study of form and structure.  In an organism, Morphology explores both its outward appearance and its internal anatomy, such as bones and organs.  In linguistics, Morphology identifies, analyzes and describes the structure of the basic units of language. In this latest series of large scale drawings, my work process parallels the meaning and practice of Morphology in both its scientific and linguistic senses.   I began these drawings by tearing apart portions of early drawings where I first explored the ideas of structure and form, incorporating and combining the pieces into revitalized compositions.  This recalls the construction of complete words from sounds, stories from words and sentences, or the growth of a creature's skeletal structure from individual bones and joints.  From there, the process of building up with collage and mark-making, and then redaction of the multiple elements into a single unified work, mimics the often chaotic, prolonged sequence of evolutionary development. Wings, feathers, vertebrae, muscle and bone: all are combined in these studies of the form and structure of the internal and external features of imaginary primordial creatures.  In Morphology I hope to awaken the viewer's sense of curiosity, astonishment and whimsy, conjuring these beings from the realm of the imagination to life on paper.

bio

born: 1961, Chicago, Illinois

education

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA, 1983

selected awards/honors

Woman Made Gallery, Abstractions Group Show: 2nd place, 2011

selected publications

Sixty Inches from Center:  Time Zone exhibition named one of Sixty's Top Picks of 2012, http://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/archive/?p=18504
Visual Overture: Editor's Pick, Spring Issue, 2011
Manifest Press: International Drawing Annual 5, p. 54, 2010

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Waubonsee College Arrowhead Gallery: Fluxions, Sugar Grove, IL, 2013
Chicago Artists' Coalition Hatch Projects: Time Zone, Chicago, IL, 2012
St. Xavier University Gallery: Formation and Flux, Chicago, IL, 2011

selected group shows

Chicago Artists' Coaltion Hatch Projects: Locality, Chicago, IL, 2012
New Art Center: M(i)(A)cro: A Contemporary Drawing Exhibition, Newtonville, MA, 2012
Woman Made Gallery: Abstractions, Chicago, IL, 2011

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