Gwendolyn Plunkett

Artist's Spotlight: Gwen Plunkett

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Member of Texas Wax Group:

Houston

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Bio

Born: Pensacola, FL Gwendolyn received her BFA from the University of Houston and her MFA from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions in Northern Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and across the southeast and in Texas. Her work is in the Cinco Banderas collection in Pensacola, Florida and numerous private collections. While living in Florida, Gwendolyn was an active member of Untitled II, a professional women’s artist organization whose goals, among other things, were to promote and provide opportunities for women artists. Together, the members gave performances, exhibited their work, and sponsored a state and a national juried exhibition, the latter juried by artist, Hollis Sigler. Gwendolyn has been living and working in Houston for the past eleven years. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor of Art at Lonestar College-CyFair in the Houston area where she teaches studio classes. She is founder of the artist group TexasWAX/Houston whose members share an interest in the ancient medium of Encaustics.

Statement

Abstract, investigative, suggestive: adjectives that are descriptive of my work. My images are reflections of personal responses to my surroundings and concerns in my everyday life. Basically however, they are non-objective images and they function as parallel visual analogs that suggestive rather than direct quotation. I work in series that sometimes overlap and intertwine, both in content and imagery. Underlying all the variations of imagery and media is an interest in the transformation of experience into visual abstract expressions. With that said, I feel I have one foot in the minimal camp and one in the expressionists camp. I love the gestural mark of artists Squeak Carnwath and Cy Twombly. At the same time, I admire the simplicity of the gridded space of Eva Hesse and Agnes Martin. Some of my work is quiet and passive---as in the Ritual Series---repetitive, contemplative, marking the passage of time. Other works attempt to capture time---the then and now, the here and there---all in one space. In the Garden Series, for instance, imagery is loud and gestural. Size, scale and placement of image affect the reading of space. Remnants of marks evidence the past as faded memory. In Ritual series, both the materials and the process used, add to the suggested meaning. Individual series emerge from these two working modes. Skin Deep, Slow Burn and Organic Compounds are new additions to my on-going Ritual & Collections Series. The repetitive marks (holes burned into the surface) in these pieces are made with a wood-burning tool. Handmade Japanese and Thai papers are torn, burned and painted with encaustic, (molten beeswax and Damar resin) and then fused to a wood panel with the wax and heating tool. The surface is worked further with additional burn marks, melted wax and oil bar. In essence, these pieces are non-objective collages, not paintings of skin. The organic translucent nature of the medium, the layering of materials and the repetitive process of burning in the marks, together create a tactile skin-like surface somewhat sensuous and suggestive of skin---begging to be touched.

Resume

Gwendolyn Plunkett 2319 Lamonte Lane, Houston, TX 77018-4626 Phone: 713.899.3540 E-mail: Gwendolyn@gwendolynplunkett.com Web: www.gwendolynplunkett.com Blogs: http://ancientvessel.blogspot.com http://texaswaxhouston.blogspot.com Selected One and Two Person Exhibitions 2009 Wax Works, Gwendolyn Plunkett and Sharon Kyle-Kuhn, Darke Gallery, Houston, TX 2006 Re/Mark, De Zeta Gallery, Houston, TX 2005 Gwen Plunkett-Encaustic Monotypes, Bosque Gallery, Houston, TX 1999 Inside/Outside, Non-Narrative Narratives, Buchanan Gallery, Galveston, TX 1997 Without Words/Without Silence, Center Gallery, USF Tampa, FL 1995 Foolish Attitudes, Center Gallery, Tampa, FL 1994 Gwen Plunkett, Okaloosa-Walton Community Gallery, Niceville, FL Selected Group Exhibitions 2009 Houston City Hall Annex Art on Loan Project's 2009 Exhibition Degrees-Group Exhibition of TexasWAX/Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio artists at M2 Gallery, on 19th in Houston Heights. Fuse: Encaustic Works by TexasWAX|Austin|Dallas|Houston|San Antonio; Gallery M2, Houston Heights, TX Encaustic Exhibition; Bosque Gallery, Lonestar College-CyFair, Cypress, TX 2008 Some Like It Hot, Artist’s Museum, Port Arthur, TX IMP(LIE)D LI(N)E , Bosque Gallery, Cy-Fair College, Houston, TX New Texas Talent, Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX Red, White and Blues, Darke Gallery, Houston, TX TexasWAX/Houston-Dallas Exhibition, Collaborating Artists Media Project, Inc., Dallas, TX Perfecting Process, A Living The Arts Event, Annex Gallery, Stafford, TX 2007 Hot Stuff, 301 Gallery, Beverly, MA Encaustic Show, Bosque Gallery, Cypress, TX South By Southwest - Exchange, Annex Gallery, Stafford, TX & McAllen, TX 2006 Dia Los Muertos, De Zeta Gallery, Houston The Big Show, Lawndale Annex, Houston, TX 2004 Group Show, Art Venture Gallery, Houston, TX 2002 Mentor’s Show, Annex Gallery, Stafford, TX 2001 Way Cool, Koelsch Gallery, Houston, TX 2000 Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2000, Williams Tower Gallery, Houston 1999 The Big Show, Lawndale Annex, Houston Above Construction, HWCA at O’Kane Gallery, Houston, TX Is this a joke or what?, O’Kane Gallery, Houston Holiday Group Show, Buchanan Gallery, Galveston, TX 1998 Invitational, Gallery on Azeel, Tampa, FL Blossom Street Gallery Group Show, Blossom Street Gallery, Houston, TX Ya Ya Rebout Interactive Art Exhibition on-line, Houston Womens’ Caucus for Art The Opening, Oculus Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA 50PEN,The Art League of Houston, Houston, TX Juror: Bert Long Northern National Art Competition, Rhinelander, Wisconsin; Juror: Betye Saar LaGrange National Biennial, Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange, GA, 1997 1997 Arts on the Park Annual Juried Exhibition, Arts on the Park. Lakeland FL INVITATIONAL, Center for Emerging Art, Inc., Miami, FL May Show, Arts on the Park, Lakeland, FL, Juror; Theo Wujcik Las Domas de Arte-Invitational, Scarfone Gallery, Tampa, FL 1996 The New Re-Contexturalist: Subverting the Found, Center Gallery, Tampa, FL All Florida Show, Center Gallery, Tampa, FL 1995 Personals: SFWG, Center Gallery, Tampa, FL Untitled I and II Group Show, Arts on the Park, Lakeland, FL FIFTEENTH ANNUAL JURIED EXHIBITION, Artists Alliance, Inc., Tampa, FL Women Living Without Violence, Center Gallery, Tampa, FL 1994 Container 3+1=Four, Florida Center for Contemporary Art, Tampa, FL Group Invitational Exhibit, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL 1993 Cinco Banderas Exhibition, Pensacola Junior College Gallery, Pensacola, FL Crossing the White Line: Women of the Nineties, Trammel Crow Building, Dallas, TX Jurors: Susan kae Grant and Celia Alvarez Munoz WOMANSPIRIT, Pensacola Cultural Center, Pensacola, FL Exploring the Human Spirit, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL My World and Welcome to It, Artel Gallery, Pensacola, FL 1992 Tenth Annual National Pen Women’s Art Competition, Fayetteville, AK Breaking The Boundaries, Art on the Tracks, Pensacola, FL Public Collections Cinco Banderas: Pensacola, FL, (Catalog) Awards 2008 Finalist for The Hunting Art Prize 1998 Merit Award, La Grange National Biennial, Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, La Grange, GA. Juror: Siri Engberg (catalog) Honorable Mention, 50OPEN, The Art League of Houston. Juror: Bert Long. 1997 Jurors Choice Award, May Show, Arts on the Park, Lakeland, FL Award of Excellence, Arts on the Park; Annual Juried Members Show, Lakeland, FL Selected Bibliography • Cy-Fair Lifestyles and Home, “Ancient Art Form Sees Revival Due to Ready Availability of Electricity, Encaustic painting dates to 5th century B.C.” Sandra Meineke, July 2009 • Houston Chronicle, Oct. 20, 2005, “Instructor Shares Her Abstract Side,” Kim Hughes • St. Petersburg Times, “Student Show,” Mary Ann Marger, April 12; 1996 • USF Oracle, “Art with and Attitude,” Jamie Clark, O