The Rebecca Ibel Gallery is proud to present ‘Your Ad Here’, the first solo exhibition in the Midwest by Karla Wozniak.  The exhibition features new paintings and drawings depicting American commercial and suburban landscapes in transition. The show will be in the Short North gallery at 1055 North High Street in Columbus, open February 1 through March 27th, with an artist talk and reception on Friday, March 12, 2010 from 5-8 pm. A catalogue of the exhibition with an essay by New York playwright and actor Brian Quirk is available.

Wozniak’s new series of landscape paintings are monumental representations of small places. ‘Clarion, PA’ is a hilly area with a commercial center off the freeway far from urban areas. The images come from photographs taken by the artist on road trips, which are then transformed in the studio into poetic portraits of overlooked places.  As cynics often call anyone living between NYC and LA ‘people we fly over’, these are similarly unheralded places ‘we drive by’.

As the title ‘Your Ad Here’ implies, signs are prominent in this new body of work. Wozniak’s paintings are a collage of commercial signs that jostle relentlessly for our attention. Each piece represents a composite view of a specific highway, city or suburban strip. In her pictures signs that have become iconic in modern consumer culture stand beside signs erected by small businesses.  But along with the anonymity of these commercial messages there is also humor and humanity—through the unseen hands that have arranged plastic letters on signs, or the implied fragile optimism in the imperfect signs of a small business. 

The subjects come to life through Wozniak’s thoughtful, intensive process and expressive handmade quality. She works intuitively, juxtaposing various techniques and media, from pencil to watercolor to paint. In some areas the paint is thinly used in a sketchy style, while other have a thicker, gestural application. Parts of her paintings are carefully rendered while other areas dissolve into abstraction. It is the artist’s combination of quietly compelling subjects and an intelligent and purposeful process, that give her a unique voice in the cacophony of the contemporary art world.

Originally from Berkeley, California, Wozniak earned a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2000 and subsequently earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2005.  She has received numerous fellowships and awards and her work has been exhibited in many group shows and a recent solo show in San Francisco. Her work is held by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in addition to corporate collections. Wozniak currently lives and works in New York.

For further information visit us at rebeccaibel.com or call 614-291-2555. The Rebecca Ibel Gallery features fine contemporary art and maintains two gallery locations in Columbus. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 am – 5 pm and by appointment.