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Artist Talk: February 4, 2020 –  Doors 6pm, Talk 6:30pm

About the Exhibition

Women to Watch is an exhibition program, held every two to three years, developed specifically for National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) national and international outreach committees. Each of these exhibitions features emerging and underrepresented women artists from the states and countries in which the museum has outreach committees, and MOCA GA has been selected to showcase The Georgia Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts‘s 2020 Women to Watch.

The exhibition will focus on the transformation of paper into complex works of art. Paper is a ubiquitous medium that is made from a variety of materials, and the artists represented by the national and international committees in Women to Watch will exemplify this variety of production.

This exhibition is curated by Michael Rooks | Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, High Museum of Art

Jerushia Graham: Using a single sheet of black cotton paper mounted on white artist board, Graham’s series “Undercurrents” explores the discontent, unrest, and tension felt by many in an increasingly polarized society. A widening socio-economic divide, daily injustices perpetrated towards anyone who is perceived as “other,” and the continued struggle for gender equality fuel frustrations that lie just beneath the surface of our daily interactions. “Undercurrents” expresses this slow burning unrest and an uneasiness about the future.

Sanaz Haghani: Born and raised in Iran, Haghani recently received her MFA in printmaking at the University of Georgia. Haghani’s incisive, deeply engaging work examines women’s role in Iranian culture and how the hijab, social class and other forces keep women’s behavior and freedom in check.

Imi Hwangbo: Drawing on her Korean heritage, University of Georgia professor and Dartmouth and Stanford graduate Hwangbo’s works on paper are based on Korean wrapping cloths, called pojagi. These four-cornered cloths, which are used for wrapping, carrying or covering objects, are often decorated with geometric patterns and floral motifs.

Lucha Rodriguez: In her “Knife Drawings” series, Caracas, Venezuela-born Rodriguez uses hand-cut paper, watercolor and the play of light to create remarkable topographies, like scars or the play of wind on sand. Using as many as 10,000 individual, superficial cuts on paper, each cut is meant to redirect light across the surface of the paper, creating subtle areas of shadow which react to environmental lighting conditions. A monochromatic wash of watercolor similarly uses a simple effect to create incredible color variations.

Whitney Stansell: Evoking paper dolls and vintage school primers, College Park-based artist Whitney Stansell’s work taps into a potent vein of personal family history and what she calls “the rich Southern tradition of storytelling and the way stories and histories must be pieced together and solidified…and passed along.” Stansell uses delicate, whimsical drawings to chronicle the winding road of her family’s past.