Artist Talk: Impressions & Over Time

About

440 Gallery is pleased to present Impressions, a solo exhibition of digital art by Leigh Blanchard. Impressions demonstrates Blanchard’s exploration of the art of scanography, which is the process of using flatbed scanner technology to create printable, digital art. This collection of ten works on photosensitive fabric and paper marks Blanchard’s second solo show at the gallery and showcases art that she has been developing for the past three years.

With an interest in alternative processes of image creation, Blanchard’s scanography process draws inspiration from the nineteenth century technology of photograms. This method involved placing objects upon photosensitive paper, which would create patterns of outlines and silhouettes. Blanchard mimics this technique by physically placing and moving fabrics, leaves, flowers, and even printings of old photograms along the surface of a flatbed scanner. She works with and against the scanning process to produce fluid and undulating digital images. Some of the final works float freely on fabric, unframed and unbound, while others lie static on a surface: defined through mounting or framing. Part photograph, part collage, these images have a playful quality that recalls the discovery and awe that early users of the photographic process must have felt. Indeed, even the show’s title, Impressions, hearkens back to the first book to be photographically printed and illustrated, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, by Anna Atkins. 

Blanchard asks us to consider: Do these images hold the kinetic energy captured across the scanner in their digital printing? Do they represent motion contained or motion liberated? Blanchard leaves you with an invitation to ponder these digital images on fabric and paper.

Leigh Blanchard graduated from Parsons School of Design/The New School with a degree in photography. She draws inspiration from music, art, and technology. Blanchard currently lives and works in New York City. She has exhibited previously at Milk Gallery, Site:Brooklyn, and at 440 Gallery with her last solo show “And Now I See” in 2018. 

In the exhibition, Over Time, Miller, Pedersen, and Roi examine how time affects the way they display or create artwork. Robin Roi presents work that spans a period of time and shows her evolution as an artist. Janet Pedersen consciously chooses to not take too much time setting up her still life and working quickly to capture a feeling of plain-air painting. Caitlin Miller uses the body as a means to tie her work together thematically. It is in these ways that these three artists explore the concept of making work over time.