Carol Prusa
Artist Statement
My constructed domes are provocative symbols that invoke the idea of the universe and physical objects that allude to real-life structures. In my “canopies,” I explore a number of mathematical models that physicists developed to explain our universe. The mathematics of my expressed geometries offer a spiritual force that organizes structures from the microscopic to the political. Here, geometry isn’t simply abstract but creates a real world, sustained by its own logic.
To realize the startling phenomena that shape our everyday world, I incorporate digital projection and video technology. Like scientists and mathematicians who model emergent behavior, I too yearn to create a radical vision, one that takes into account the chaotic interactions that are central to formation of the universe.
As artists and scientists seek to explain our place, I join the most advanced daydreamers – those who imaginatively visualize a creative matrix and explore otherworldly possibilities – those who embrace indeterminacy and the fundamentally unstable boundaries between infinitesimal and immeasurable realms.
“[The Universe] is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures.” — Galileo Galilei, Il Saggiatore, 1623
Recent work consists of acrylic hemispheres ranging from bowl-sized to five feet in diameter, articulated with silverpoint drawing and graphite on the convex illuminated surfaces, punctuated by patterns of fiber optic lights.
Artist Bio
Carol Prusa was born in Chicago, earned her B.S from the University of Illinois and M.F.A. from Drake University. She currently teaches painting as an Associate Professor of Art at Florida Atlantic University. She has been in numerous exhibitions and her work is in private and public collections including the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Telfair Museum, the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, and the Arkansas Art Center. Her work traveled in the Triennial Exhibition of German and American Artists curated by the American Museum of Arts and Design, NYC, exhibited at the Museum for Angewandte Kunst – Frankfurt and at the Museum of Arts and Design.
About the Artist
Prusa’s intimate work begins with silverpoint, an exacting technique used widely during the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods by Leonardo da Vinci and others. Used much like a pen or pencil, the silverpoint is applied to the surface and then in Prusa’s work, washed with ground graphite and acrylic binder, then heightened with titanium white acrylic paint. The flat work often contains additional materials such as sulfur paint, aluminum leaf or small bits of cut glass. The domed pieces often include fiber optics or video feeds. The result whether on a flat or domed surface is a creation of such sublime detailed intensity that it oscillates freely between micro and macro worlds. The effort involved in each piece is as great as it appears often taking hundreds of hours.
Prusa’s work is glorious. It is a celebration as much as it is an exploration – an exploration into the patterns and structures of the universal. Prusa is very conscious of the ties that bind artists and scientists. She happily “joins the dreamers of the “whole” and offers “possibility.” And by utilizing an historic technique, particularly one widely used during an era of great enlightenment, she pays homage to the insatiably curious spirit of men and women throughout time. (via E O Art Lab)
Carol Prusa at Jenkins Johnson Gallery
Carol Prusa at Jennifer Kostuik Gallery
Carol Prusa at Tinney Contemporary
Posted by Carmelita Caruana
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