Infinite and Transient, an exhibition of new works by Jennifer Printz, is currently on view at the Corridor Gallery at Dimensions Variable, a multifarious arts organization in Miami’s Little River. Printz gives us eight works which address sculptural concerns such as space and gravity, with pieces that hover between the two dimensional and the three.
Her work stems from an exploration of materials and, as consummate printmaker, she is accustomed to responding to the needs of the medium. In her artwork she expands upon the customary materials and techniques, stretching, pushing, straining their limits. In Infinite and Transient, Printz chose fabrics with varied nuances. Her silk piece droops, vacillating between comedy and tragedy, an elegant fraying along the bottom. The cotton hovers in space, with printed images of the sky. In her two small works she juxtaposes the near abstraction of the sky with the man-made grid and stripe patterns, each strengthening the gap between geometric abstraction and organic abstraction.
Printz is very conscious of the distinction between what comes from nature and that which comes from the mind of mankind. She specifically chose materials which have spent time growing on the earth and enters the subtle dialogue which contains an inherent history about the origins of the wood, silk or cotton. This is the kind of “heritage” and anthropomorphism of materials artists enjoy.