Athens, GA — The state of Georgia has long been known for its five P’s in agriculture — poultry, peaches, peanuts, pecans and paper — but only one of these has attracted a wide array of Georgia artists. Organized by the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia and Athens’ Lyndon House Arts Center, the exhibition “Cut and Paste: Works of Paper” will travel the state of Georgia beginning this summer, featuring 11 Georgia artists, each of whom works in paper. From Steven Anderson’s “Tree Rings,” featuring torn, scratched and sanded paper drawn on with markers and pens, to Jerushia Graham’s complex and delicate cut paper pieces, Elizabeth Lide’s three-dimensional paper-pulp vessels, Teresa Bramlette Reeves’ life-size paper-doll dresses and Lucha Rodriguez’ cascading wall sculptures, all of them push the limits of this fragile medium.
“Cut and Paste” is part of “Highlighting Contemporary Art in Georgia,” a triennial series of traveling exhibitions that began with “Pushing the Press: Printmaking in the South” in 2016. Each exhibition is organized by the Georgia Museum of Art and the Lyndon House and made available at minimal cost to interested venues in metropolitan areas big and small across the state, in keeping with the University of Georgia’s statewide public outreach mission. Curator Didi Dunphy, who is the program supervisor at the Lyndon House, assembled both exhibitions, with assistance from museum staff.
An accomplished artist, Dunphy received a master of fine arts degree from San Francisco Art Institute in the contemporary arts and has had exhibitions in major venues. She is a former visiting scholar and professor in the contemporary and digital media arts at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, UGA; serves as gallery director at the Hotel Indigo-Athens and Indigo’s GlassCube project space; and is a guest curator for the Albany Museum of Art, Albany, Georgia. She is a member of Americans for the Arts, the American Alliance of Museums and the College Art Association and has served on a number of advisory panels for Georgia Council for the Arts.
Dunphy traveled around the state to select contemporary artists for the exhibition, which examines ways in which working artists manipulate paper to create remarkable and varied works of art. From detailed hand cutting to mark making, draping and folding, casting and silhouettes, both wall-bound and sculptural reliefs consider current possibilities of paper and highlight artists using these magical techniques. She says, “My hope is that all enjoy the awe and amazement of the world of works on paper as well as the wonderful talents living in the state of Georgia.”
Artists with work in “Cut and Paste” include: Steven L. Anderson, Jerushia Graham, Matt Haffner, Elizabeth Lide and Lucha Rodriguez of Atlanta; Betsy Cain, of Savannah; Imi Hwangbo and Samuel Stabler, of Athens; Hannah Israel, of Columbus; Teresa Bramlette Reeves of Kennesaw; and Kalina Wińska of Valdosta.
The exhibition opens at the Lyndon House, in Athens, where it runs June 1 – July 27. The opening reception there is Thursday, June 6, 6 – 8 p.m. It then travels to the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, August 17 – November 14; the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, Georgia, December 5, 2019 – February 14, 2020; the Albany Museum of Art, Albany, Georgia, February 27 – June 27, 2020; and Telfair Museum of Art’s Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, Georgia, August 1, 2020 – February 21, 2021.
Hillary Brown
Michael Lachowski
