WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS
AMY CHENG and SHARON LIGORNER
January 25 - March 8, 2024
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS
AMY CHENG and SHARON LIGORNER
January 25 - March 8, 2024
Lola Shepard is pleased to present the virtual exhibition of WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS featuring select works by AMY CHENG and SHARON LIGORNER.
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Geometric forms pervade our surroundings, constituting the foundational structure and blueprints of life in the cosmos.
From the molecules of our DNA, to celestial bodies in our galaxy, all adhere to fixed laws and precise measures.
(Click Images To View Artwork Details)
Highlighting the sheer wonder of existence and exploring concepts of infinity and interconnectedness, the artists illustrate a profound engagement with geometric principles and aesthetics, blurring the boundaries between craft, art, and everyday life.
SHARON LIGORNER Fuchsia, 2023. Collage on paper, 17 x 13 in.
AMY CHENG
Infused with an interest in spatial illusion, intricacy, geometry, patterning, and cross-hatching, Cheng creates complex and mesmerizing motifs featuring black holes, wormholes, quasars, stars, and celestial objects in her attempt to grasp the inconceivable.
AMY CHENG The Crazy Concept of Quasars, 2023. Gouache and oil markers on paper, 9 x 12 in.
Cheng's paintings draw inspiration from diverse sources, including Indian and Tibetan mandalas, Byzantine mosaics, Persian textiles, and Western illusionistic painting.
She renders voluminous spheres intricately interwoven within a decorated,
layered realm of shimmering light and vibrant, prismatic hues.
AMY CHENG Incubus, 2011. Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.
Cheng states:
"My art centers on the heart's yearning to connect with the vastness of life, the timeless trajectory of the universe. I aim to evoke what Zen practitioners refer to as nothing and everything – the sensation of being in harmony with the universe."
SHARON LIGORNER
While Ligorner demonstrates versatility with gouache, acrylic, and oil, as seen in the glass paintings
Watersign #3 and Watersign #23, her primary artistic focus centers on encaustics and collage.
In constructing her encaustic paintings, Ligorner builds up layers of beeswax and pigment to create rich, thick surfaces. Using a razor blade and dental tools, she delicately scrapes away layers, resulting in luminescent smooth surfaces begging to be touched.
SHARON LIGORNER Arrival, 2023. Encaustic on wood panel, 20 x 20 in.
In describing her work, Ligorner says:
"I paint abstractly, focusing on color and geometry and allowing the process to direct me. It’s a dance of creation and destruction: By adding and subtracting paint, I transform my surface until the unexpected outcomes surprise me."
The incorporation of the circular shape, a fundamental element in Ligorner’s creations,
symbolically suggest the unity of all things great and small and the perpetual motion of all life.
SHARON LIGORNER Floaters, 2020. Collage on paper, 17 x 13 in.
Capturing the fundamental nature of the geometric structures molding our reality, AMY CHENG and SHARON LIGORNER
transcends earthly confines, ushering the viewer into the magnificence of their worlds within worlds.
STUDIO WALK-THROUGH with AMY CHENG
BIOGRAPHY: AMY CHENG
Amy Cheng was born in Taiwan, raised in Brazil, Oklahoma and Texas. She received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York. Exhibiting both nationally and internationally, her work is held in a number of corporate and public collections, including The Hyde Collection (Glens Falls, NY), New York University Langone Medical Center (New York, NY), Sheraton Hotels (Brussels, Belgium), Sam Houston University (Huntsville, TX) and Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Philadelphia, PA). Public art commissions include projects at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Howard St. El Station (Chicago, IL), the 25th Avenue Subway Station (Brooklyn, NY), the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport MetroLink Station, the Jacksonville International Airport, and the Western State Hospital (Tacoma, WA).
She received a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship to Renmin University of China, Beijing, PRC in Spring 2017, a P.S. 122 Painting Center Fellowship in New York City for a ten-month residency in 2011-12, and a Senior Lecture/Research Fulbright fellowship to Brazil in Fall 2008. She has been awarded two New York Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellowships, and an Arts International travel grant to China. She is a Professor Emerita of the Art Department at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
SHARON LIGORNER'S PAINTING PROCESS
BIOGRAPHY: SHARON LIGORNER
Sharon Ligorner lives and works in Massachusetts. She graduated with a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1986, having spent her junior year in Florence, Italy, at Studio Art Centers International. Following graduation, Sharon did a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Ligorner has mounted over 40 solo and group exhibitions including Oresman Gallery of Smith College (Northampton, MA), Elusie Gallery (Easthampton MA), Gallery 37 (Milford, DE), Francesca Anderson Gallery (Lexington, MA), Geoffrey Young Gallery (Great Barrington, MA), and Herter Gallery at University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA), to name a few. Ligorner was one of 79 artists featured in the newly published book Encaustics in the 21st Century. Her paintings are included in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Headquarters in NYC, and the Art Gallery at Western New England University.