CURIOSITY
January 7 - February 25, 2017
Opening reception: Saturday,
January 7 from 6 - 8pm
Eleanor Harwood Gallery
1275 Minnesota Street, Suite 206
San Francisco, CA 94107
Francesca
Pastine strives to evoke the Romantic notion of the artist as explorer
navigating vast realms of possibility. Inspired by NASA’s Mars Rover, Curiosity,
and its exploration of uncharted territory on Mars, her work offers a
contemporary take on the notion of Sublime, a key theme in eighteenth-
and nineteenth-century American art. Pastine
was drawn to the rover because it is named “Curiosity” and she believes
that being curious is an essential element of being an artist.
Like the Mars Rover, the artist as explorer seeks to go beyond her
limits and to make visible the vast landscape of her imagination.
Pastine probes the potential of material and its transformation through chance and discovery. The unpredictability of the watercolor medium allows for inspired accidents; her sculpture is informed by unexpected juxtaposition and unique contradictions. The paintings appear as otherworldly landscapes and employ visual voids and veils to represent sites of artistic ferment, the imagination, and revelation. The sculptures represent vessels and, like the rover, are of a crudeness that belies the sophistication essential for the exploration of unmapped terrain.
Pastine probes the potential of material and its transformation through chance and discovery. The unpredictability of the watercolor medium allows for inspired accidents; her sculpture is informed by unexpected juxtaposition and unique contradictions. The paintings appear as otherworldly landscapes and employ visual voids and veils to represent sites of artistic ferment, the imagination, and revelation. The sculptures represent vessels and, like the rover, are of a crudeness that belies the sophistication essential for the exploration of unmapped terrain.
