Print Exhibition Explores the Universe in Words and Images

“Leslie Sutcliffe: The Galaxy, Wunderkammer and Index Paintings,” an exhibition opening October 4 and continuing through November 1 at the University Art Gallery, CSU Dominguez Hills, features 50 paintings that make up three distinct stories by Leslie Sutcliffe, artist, writer, curator and longtime adjunct instructor at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.

Sutcliffe founded APEX Etching Editions Limited and El Moro Etching Editions. She has worked the last five years with images from encyclopedias, dictionaries, illuminated manuscripts and art history books, depicting the relationship between words and visual images. She portrays this relationship in paintings ranging from swirling nebulas in her “Galaxy” series to the intricate structure of a DNA molecule in her “Index” grouping. Kathy Zimmerer, director, University Art Gallery, describes the artist’s melding of art and science as “an extension of the bizarre visual juxtapositions of contemporary life. Sutcliffe explores an encyclopedic array of subjects as she is interested in the way images and objects are categorized and mapped, even ethereal worlds such as the solar system. She uses the German word “Wunderkammer” for one of her series, for the Renaissance ‘wonder cabinets’ housed exotic collections of curiosities ranging from precious gems to odd natural specimens, the beginnings of the modern museum.”

Zimmerer hopes that students will be inspired by the exhibit to experiment with imagery in their own work, saying,“Printmaking allows a fantastic re-interpretation of classics or a graphic expression of political intent. Artists
regularly mine images and recreate them with their own unique vision in a variety of printmaking techniques including silk screen, etchings, woodcuts and lithographs.”

An opening reception for the exhibit will take place on October 4, 5:30-7:30 p.m. A gallery tour by Sutcliffe will be held at 6 p.m. during the reception. This exhibit and related events at the University Art Gallery are sponsored by the Instructionally Related Activities Committee of Associated Students, Inc.

Admission is free to all gallery events. The gallery is located in LaCorte Hall, A107 and is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Thursday. The campus is located at 1000 E. Victoria Street in Carson near the junction of the Harbor, Artesia and San Diego freeways. Visitor parking permits may be purchased for $3 at the yellow dispensing machines at the periphery of each campus lot.

For more information, contact Zimmerer at (310) 243-3334 or go to http://www.cla.csudh.edu/dnp/art_gallery/index.asp?wID=22.

- Joanie Harmon