The Santa Monica College Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery is presenting “Sight Readings: A 35-Year Survey of Work by Roxanne Sexauer,” an exhibition of original works by the printmaker renowned in the contemporary printmaking community as an artist whose aesthetic of abstraction references nature. Sexauer’s work recognizes a long tradition built in the distinctive qualities and processes of hand-pulled prints.
The show will be open to the public from Tuesday, Sep. 2, to Saturday, Oct. 11, with an exhibit reception on Saturday, Sep. 13, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
A gallery talk by exhibit curator Gordon Fuglie, Director/Head of Curatorial Affairs at the Central California Museum of Art, will be held on Saturday, Sep. 13, at 5 p.m. in The Edye (adjacent to the gallery).
Sexauer, who teaches in the Printmaking and Art History Disciplines, School of Art, at California State University, Long Beach, will hold a print demonstration on Wednesday, Sep. 24, at 3 p.m. in Art 126.
As a young art student in 1973, Sexauer fantasized about studying with the last surviving German Expressionist woodcut master, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976). Her earliest woodcut prints crackle with the dark angularities of classic German Expressionism.
By the 1980s, Sexauer embraced postmodernism, developing a hybrid, multi-layered approach that mixes botanical and zoological forms with ideas and images from the history of science, printmaking, and mythology. This direction continues to inform her images, which in recent years combine lithography, silkscreen, and collagraphy.
“I have seen her imagery progress for two decades,” said Fuglie. “Roxanne’s art is distinctive because it is complex, vibrant, and always recognizable for its adroit use of technique with multiple images bearing layers of meaning. Connoisseurs regard her as one of the best woodcut artists in the region.”
The show presents the first career survey of Sexauer’s work, beginning with a 1973 self-portrait in the German Expressionist style, and concluding with works completed this past summer.
SMC’s Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery is located at the SMC Performing Arts Center on Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street, Santa Monica. Due to construction in progress, enter the building from 11th Street. Exhibits, gallery talks, artist demonstrations, and opening receptions are free.
Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 310.434.3434.
