John Saurer
Parts of the Whole

Our exhibition space is glowing with wall installations by artist John Saurer. This is our second solo exhibition by John Saurer, but our first in our new space. The versatility in his practice extends to materiality — and for those who saw his monotypes, branded drawings and digital prints at our last show, the sculptural relief and intentional use of reflective surfaces and shadow-casting in these newest works are a wonderful immersive experience.

Of All That Glitters is Not Gold, Saurer writes: “This work is a tributary, from personal transitions of time and place to the expansiveness and glacial pacing of the natural world. When working with opposites there is a potential for a third meaning to come into being… This work is comprised of invasive Buckthorn trees covered in gold glitter.”

Chorus is another play on words — chorus, chorale, choral, coral — referencing the formal elements found in music and the coastal paradise of San Salvador island in the Bahamas, where Saurer taught a drawing-from-nature course. Elements in his relief sculptures refer to characters, scrolls, and tools from ancient and contemporary forms of communication, with the implicit “drawings” on the wall created by random patterns and shadow.