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Like the Abstract Expressionists, Barbara Harder is
motivated by process. Interested in excavating surface and uncovering space, Harder
often refers to her work as topographic explorations. Though she begins each piece
with a pre-conceived notion of color and design, it is through the process of printing
that she discovers unexpected gold mines to reveal and develop. Harder’s rich, active
surfaces are filled with texture, translucent shapes and muted tones, occasionally
jolted by the unexpected color or a collision of form.
Layering Space, the title of her last five solo exhibitions, represents the
way in which she not only probes the space within the print, but also alters the
space within the gallery. Cascading off the walls in scroll-like forms, her large
works take on a simultaneous sense of antiquity and modernism. As in Asian painted
scrolls, the illusion of space is subtle, yet apparent.
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Her one-of-a-kind prints, monumental in scale, were
created on two of the largest hand-printmaking presses in the world. After creating
an arrangement of inked shapes on a matrix, Harder prints them onto paper. By constantly
altering the pressure of the press, the viscosity of the inks and the relationship
of the shapes, she achieves extraordinary layers of texture and color. Once her prints
are dry, Harder continues to work on them. Most will be printed on with additional
ink layers while others will be drawn upon with a variety of media. But throughout
the process the objective is clear - to create a cohesive series in which each piece
is truly individual in tone, depth and focus.
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Barbara Harder heads the Printmaking Department at
Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT, and teaches at Quinnipiac University in
Hamden, CT. She has been a guest lecturer at institutions such as the Yale University
Art Gallery and Fairfield University as well as a consultant for the Center for Contemporary
Printmaking in Norwalk, CT. She exhibits internationally, most prominently at the
Kyoto City Museum in Kyoto, Japan; the De Cordova Museum in Lincoln, MA; the Rose
Art Museum at Brandeis University; and at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. Harder
is the recipient of numerous awards and is represented in many private, corporate
and museum collections.
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