DRAWINGS

Jennifer Vasher Tova Drawing Are We Even

The large format charcoal, pastel, and ink drawings are documentation of psychological and physical landscapes, these two from family histories.

The titles Unlikely Bedfellows; Are We Even Related? (The Thunderbird Lodge, Canyon de Chelly) and Unknown Location for a Baptism (Somewhere outside Charleston, Mississippi 1956) announcing both location and event. 2021, Dimensions together 56" W x 60" H

Vasher's continued exploration and exploitation of history and process are explored and exploited through the imagery, the give and take of mark making, and through opacity and transparency. By pairing incongruous materials such as charcoal and synthetic polypropylene paper, the drawings introduce intentional conflict and struggle into the mark-making process; a resistance followed by moments of ease or release. The physical effort of marrying mediums then becomes an act of resolution. Through additive and subtractive gestures, Vasher marks up, tears down, swipes out, and builds anew.

The event-locations, whether from the artist's personal history or other stories resonate, however abstract, with contemporary socio-political concerns, for instance, Are We Even Related? to the great red and blue divide in America today.

Unlikely Bedfellows; Are We Even Related? (The Thunderbird Lodge, Canyon de Chelly, 2019), 2021, 96" x 60"

Process and history are explored and exploited through the imagery, the give and take of mark making, and opacity and transparency.

so, almost drawing from the series Exclusionary Qualifiers. Escape words that release from liability and responsibility. Words such as practically and almost. (We are almost there; She is practically family..)

Whether exploring the abstract landscapes of a puritanical society, or that society’s commonplace language in the form of exclusionary qualifiers, the imagery references the interplay between desire, fear, addiction, marketing, and consumerism.

Horizon, 2020,
charcoal on synthetic (Yupo) paper, matte clear coat, 30" H x 60" W

Vasher's drawing of George Nelson's iconic mid-century modern dresser was inspired formally by the clean minimal lines in this design & conceptually by the modernist myth. Vasher's continued exploration and exploitation of history and process are explored and exploited through the imagery, the give and take of mark making, and opacity and transparency.

Detail, Mid-Century Modern, George Nelson, Unknown Location