The Memorial Union Art Gallery will showcase Ewa Tarsia’s exhibit, “Absolute Dot,” from June 8 through July 2. The exhibit will feature monoprints and relief paintings.
"Absolute Dot" represents the evolution of Tarsia’s printmaking into personal techniques that meld the actual Lucite printing plate into relief paintings on canvas.
Tarsia is a Polish born artist who became a Canadian citizen in 1995. The success of her artistic career in Canada was celebrated in June 2007 when she was officially inducted into the Royal Academy of Arts.
Formally trained in painting and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts in Poland, Tarsia began printmaking when she arrived in Winnipeg in 1991. For the past 14 years, she has been working full time as a printmaker and painter. Monoprinting, her specific area of interest, involves creation of a one-of-a kind image on a smooth surface such as Plexiglas that is eventually transferred onto paper.
“My work reflects the intimacy I share, and have always shared with landscape forms, abstract textures, color, shape and light. My sensitivity to these elements and larger arenas of life and nature is translated through the medium of printmaking and painting,” Tarsia said. “In this artistic language, I am able to animate my perceptions and explore the transience of time, the character of night and day and memories of past seasons.”
As a printmaker, Tarsia is part of a tradition of artists who acknowledge that their plates (pieces of metal, plastic, wood and linoleum they print from) are the true objects of their affection. Covered with marks, lines and subtle traces of color, printing plates are often as interesting as the images pulled from them. Each plate is visually complex, offering a fully active and engaged surface that, once transformed into sculpture, reveals both the artist’s obsessive process and the beauty that motivates her to continue.
As an environmentalist, Tarsia sees the irony of using plastic and paper to create images that celebrate the beauty of the natural world. “It reflects our society,” she says of the work. “Plastic is everywhere.”
Tarsia works in diverse media including painting, sculpture, tapestry, landscape design and drawing. She has displayed work in international print biennials in Spain, France, Poland, Austria, United States, England, Germany, Japan and Korea.
