Sam Lena-South Tucson Library invites you to an exhibit by local artist Cornelia Jensen, on display until September 30, 2024.
Artist statement:
Abstract painting is an exploration of the unobservable. Truly abstract images do not reference anything, not even emotion. They are “nonrepresentational”. They depict an alternative "Nature" or reality. They offer an avenue to quell our desire to name, sort and control by creating an atmospheric space for the unconscious to inhabit.
Coming from a history of representational painting and drawing practice, I also pursued a parallel path working with found-objects. Those pieces started as two-dimensional collages, later to become three-dimensional by using literal objects, both man-made and natural. Over the years the two paths of painting and assemblage have converged into one. Currently, I make paintings that sometimes integrate different found materials to create the resulting image. The wood, canvases and other materials that form the substrates of the works, are found. In fact, most of the paint I use is also found. Sometimes I even use dried paint. In what may be garbage to others, I see possibility. I feel compelled to channel waste into something with a renewed purpose. Art can be anything, so why not seek to explore beauty in whatever is around us. That can be environment, materials and the time to create.Artist bio:
Cornelia Jensen is an artist and curator whose work ranges from found-object assemblage to landscape painting. Her father was a plein air landscape painter who encouraged a pursuit of drawing and painting since childhood. Later she expanded her genres to also include found-object assemblage, installation and light art. Jensen studied film at California College of the Arts and received her MFA in 2008. She received a BA in Philosophy from Haverford College in 1987 and also attended the Studio Art Program at the Syracuse University Branch in Florence, Italy. She graduated with honors in Art from The Masters School where she received the Linda Wyatt Chissell Art Award. In San Francisco, she co-created “The Werepad”, a film, art and multimedia venue. She was co-creator and resident artist of The Lola Gallery in San Francisco. In 2003 Jensen relocated to New York City where her work as a commercial painter and sculptor informed her fine art with new techniques. She also worked as an art handler, curator, lighting designer and carpenter. She was a salon member of the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center in Brooklyn as well as the International Women Artists Salon. Jensen was awarded two artists residencies in Arizona, at the Petrified Forest National Park and at Taliesin West: Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Scottsdale. Eventually Jensen relocated to Tucson, Arizona where she currently resides. She is on the Board of Directors for the Sonoran Plein Air Painters who practice plein air landscape painting. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe and Asia. She has curated numerous exhibitions in San Francisco, New York and Tucson, Arizona.
Images courtesy of the artist
