SOUND STRUCTURE

SOUND STRUCTURE
Andrea Donnelly

Showing: Feb 20 – March 31, 2017
Artist Reception: Friday, March 24

popblossom and Work Program Architects are pleased to present SOUND STRUCTURE, selected works by Andrea Donnelly, showing Feb 20 – March 31 with an artist reception, Friday, March 24, 6:30 – 8:30 PM, at WPA Gallery in The Monticello Arcade, 208 E Plume Street, Norfolk, VA 23510.

Visual artist Andrea Donnelly weaves exquisite cloths. The intricate and time-consuming processes she uses to transform thread to cloth are the conceptual backbone of her work.  She touches every inch of thread in the woven-painting-object-artifacts she creates, imbedding imagery and forming figures locked within textile structure. Donnelly paints woven cloth, only to take it apart then weaves it again.  Through unraveling and rebuilding this visual language, she excavates deeper meanings in the collaboration of tool, material, and intention.

In addition to weaving, Donnelly has recently begun working in collage and drawing on paper. Reflecting the patterning and sensibilities of textiles, Donnelly’s drawings are informed by her experience as a weaver in both process and mind state.
Inspired by the setting for this exhibition—an art space adjoined to an architectural firm—Donnelly has chosen to make central to her SOUND STRUCTURE display, her mixed media work, “The Dancer and the Architect.” Rich in color, texture and pattern, this large-scale installation somehow makes cloth seem strangely unfamiliar, as though we are discovering the essence of cloth for the very first time.  According to Donnelly, SOUND STRUCTURE refers to the active nature of her woven cloths and drawings and the relationship between individual threads and the structure of the cloth they create. Donnelly shares, “This relationship creates the perception of motion, vibration, and even sound.  This exhibition presents works that celebrate the structure of woven line and the unique color theory of woven cloth.  Taken together, they create a complex and vibrant symphony.”

Andrea Donnelly is an award-winning artist whose works have been exhibited around the world from New York to Tokyo. She holds an MFA in fiber from Virginia Commonwealth University and two bachelor’s degrees from North Carolina State University. Donnelly, who lives and works in Richmond, VA, is currently preparing for her first solo museum exhibition at The North Carolina Museum of Art, opening fall 2017. Also in the fall of this year, Donnelly will be among the featured artists from around the world whose works will be exhibited in the inaugural exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.