In conversation at her Pawtucket studio, Tayo Heuser described herself as shy; to discuss her as a person with a countenance of introspection seems more accurate. The assessment of herself was enigmatic and thoughtprovoking, juxtaposed against the array of emotive abstractions which blanketed nearly all of the walls and available table surfaces around her that day, as she prepared for “Looking In: Looking Out,” her solo exhibition that opened September 1 at the Jamestown Arts Center.

Her reductive sensibility engages the idea of spirituality in art. Heuser’s work transcends the feeling of being in the “now,” directing attention toward the ineffable beyond. While putting last details on pieces to be included in the show, she discussed Jamestown’s exhibit space. She spoke about the set-up she envisioned to engage the white cube architectural format in a way that would become immersive.

Focused quietude roots Heuser’s reductive investigations that are explorations of interiority. Silence frames the core of her creative ethos and contributes to projecting the expansive feeling of space in her work.

Process is an important feature of what Heuser is doing, and method texturally informs her work. Whether burnished smooth or fluffy in surface, her pieces ply geometric relationships to transform their physicality into works of imbedded spiritual force. The
artist’s large, flat, burnished works on paper, paintings on wood and soft castepaper reliefs represent specific areas of investigation. Brought together for the Jamestown show, the impression will be a spatial reasoning where works organically coalesce into a conceptual whole.

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