FERNDALE — The Sophia Grace Gallery was full on Saturday, May 9 for an artist talk with Matthew Remsbecher, who is currently featured in a solo exhibition in the gallery.
Sophia Kidd, the owner and curator of the gallery, said the night was all about having conversations.
“It’s more than just art on the wall and finding collectors,” she said of the gallery, adding that she wanted to create conversations and allow the art to have an impact on the community. That is why the exhibitions last for several months rather than have rapid turnover with an emphasis on selling the pieces.
During the artist talk, Remsbecher went over his artistic process, how his job as an architect impacts his art and his thought on his art.
Remsbecher uses plaster to create his art. He said it is a difficult medium because even with his knowledge and experience, it can be unpredictable. It is both heavy and fragile, and hard to control.
“It doesn’t want to listen,” he said.
As an everyday material, Remsbecher said he enjoys seeing plaster in an artistic space. Kidd said when listening to Remsbecher talk about his medium, it makes her think about how plaster symbolizes human will. It can be heavy and fragile and hard to control as people have everyday battles of going to the gym, eating healthy and other beneficial decisions.
Before he begins with the plaster, Remsbecher has to build a wooden frame to which a canvas is attached in order to hold up against the plaster.
Once the plaster has been applied and dried he goes back and paints the art.
While he uses a variety of colors, with the exception of two, all pieces in the Ex Nihilo exhibition at Sophia Grace Gallery are black. Kidd said that is what inspired the title of the exhibition, which can be taken to mean emerge from nothing as the art gives little for the viewers to interpret from. This leaves the viewers having to look within themselves to find the meaning they are searching for.
Remsbecher said this art is a response to his work as an architect, which has to be very exact and uses a lot of lines and designs.
Kidd pointed out that the stark minimalism of the art feels quiet compared to many other artists. He said the world is so loud and everyone is rushing from one thing to the next. This art is also a response to that, a chance to slow things down.
After the artist talk guests were welcomed to join in for an open mic featuring poetry based on Remsbecher’s art. Poetry based on the gallery’s first exhibition, a solo exhibition by He Gong entitled “Maps of No Return,” has been printed recently in a new book, “Edgeworks: Ekphrastic Encounters.”
A new exhibition will come to the gallery starting June 6.