Looking In: Looking Out in Jamestown
by Suzanne Volmer
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.
To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.
More from This Issue
First Light Shines at the ICA
Despite the surge in identity-interested art production that occurred in the 1990s — a time when some artists were thinking specifically about inequality within the art world itself — there are still art museums in the United States that have a problem with diversity and inclusion. This is not so at
CORNERED: Hope Ricciardi, Co-Chair, United South End Artists
On September 24 and 25, the United South End Artists (USEA), spearheaded by co-chairs Hope M. Ricciardi and Laz Montano, will host its 30th Annual Open Studio Weekend, inviting visitors to see USEA members’ workspaces in what is billed as “Boston’s biggest public open studios” with over 10,000 peopl
Michele Ratté’s Circle of Life
The shimmer of Michele Ratté’s gold-infused sculptures and prints is not just decorative veneer. Precious, permanent and pure, gold in her hands is not just a physical material, but a transcendent one. It is an ideal medium for cross-referencing the natural and archetypical cycles of birth, death an