Welcome to Kolman & Pryor Gallery’s virtual version of our summer show, Structure + Connection.

Structure + Connection features encaustic paintings and sculptures by:

Jodi Reeb
Dietlind Vander Schaaf

If you would like to see and purchase more artwork from these artists, please click on your favorite artist’s name.

ABOUT STRUCTURE + CONNECTION:

Practicing within the same natural medium, encaustic or beeswax, with a visual language inspired by nature’s forms, gallery artist, Jodi Reeb, and guest artist, Dietlind Vander Schaaf of Portland, Maine, depart from each other and the traditions of encaustic painting in new work presented in Structure + Connection at Kolman & Pryor Gallery. Curated by Reeb and gallery co-founder and curator, Patrick Pryor, the exhibition opens Saturday evening, June 26, 2021, with an artist reception from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The exhibition closes September 4, 2021.

“Jodi is evolving into quite a force in the encaustic community as she’s bridging the gap between sculpture and painting in her new work,” Pryor says. “Dietlind’s work is highly sought after and extremely popular with collectors. We’re thrilled to pair them in this show, in which each one’s work not only complements the other’s but together their artwork demonstrates the versatility and breadth of the encaustic medium.”

Vander Schaaf describes herself as “very much a painter. I paint in a sculptural way, in that I build up thick layers of encaustic, then carve into those layers, often with repetitive, distinctive mark making, to add further texture and sculptural dimension to the work.”

A teacher and practitioner of such contemplative practices as yoga and meditation, Vander Schaaf says her paintings are “abstracted landscapes, as well as inner landscapes where the inner and outer world meet to describe a felt experience of the world.” She hopes viewers and collectors will find quietness and calm in her work.

Reeb’s organic wall sculptures oscillate between painting and sculpture. Her circular pieces, referencing the spheres within nature, often overlap creating a negative space also found in many of her aluminum wall sculptures. In these sculptures, she paints with enamel and encaustic (beeswax and damar resin) on primed aluminum, then bends and twists the metal into dramatically textured organic forms. Reeb’s intention with her sculptural series is to investigate a folding, opening, and evolving as a reflection of her new approach to encaustic artwork.

“We’re both challenging the physical properties of translucence and structure using encaustic,” Reeb explains. “At the same time, we’re drawn to ideas of layering inspired by natural forms where the paintings are deconstructed as well as abstracted to create structure and connection.”