Earth and Air

ARTHOUSE Gallery and Studios is proud to present the art of Charlotte Cooper and John Lennertz in Earth and Air.

Cooper for this exhibit, is showing works created with wax and resin encaustics on a Japanese paper that is both strong and delicate. By using encaustics, the ancient favorite of Greek portrait painters, the scrolls created are full of light and color and move on currents of air. Cooper says she loves the texture and materiality of the encaustic medium and it’s dual ability to carry pure loads of color and still be characterized by translucency. She first saw encaustic works in a gallery and wanted to touch them, to smell them, and then to see what she could do with this medium. Then is when she left behind watercolor and forged metals to explore encaustics. Although she have now been working in this way for 15 years, each piece feels like the beginning of a new adventure.

Lennertz has always appreciated detail in objects. Growing up in an era obsessed with Star Wars and the “magic” of the miniatures used to create it and other movies of the seventies and eighties.  For as long as he can remember he’s have felt a need to create objects with repetitive elements and attention to detail in homage to these childhood memories. In the creation of these objects he can approach the “play” of childhood and shut out the din of the responsibilities of adulthood. This body of work centers on reliquaries and derives its forms from Fabergé eggs. The “relics” contained in these vessels speak of loss and decay, both on a personal and global scale; loss and decay of habitat, species, and even privacy. These pieces are a way for Lennertz to internalize, compartmentalize, and cope with the rapidly changing world around him.