ARTIST TALK: Saturday, May 4, at 4pm, with Yvonne Mouser and Jane Springwater, facilitated by Katherine Lam, an independent designer/builder and Chair of the Furniture Design Program at California College of the Arts (CCA).
Municipal Bonds is pleased to announce Invisible Forces, a duo presentation of Yvonne Mouser's sculptures and Jane Springwater's drawings and prints, on view April 6–May 25, 2024. This is the first time these two Bay Area-based artists' works will be shown together—while their practices and mediums differ, both investigate structural systems and the push-pull relationships of line, space and volume. Their exhibition comprises two- and three-dimensional abstract works where transformation of form and relationship to the built environment play with optical effects. In their approaches, conceptual and organizational, Mouser and Springwater each delve into the energetic influences and imperceptible architecture of time.
In her new body of work, Yvonne Mouser plays with repetition of line and fragment to create structural patterns in three-dimensional assemblies. She uses simple forms that multiply and subtly shift, accumulating into objects with a sense of transformation. She contemplates gravity, both physically and emotionally, among other invisible forces of influence. Using a range of materials, she explores building processes which lend themselves to distinct forms and further possibilities of manipulation. With wood as her primary medium, she carves, stacks, joins, bends and weaves. In sand, she experiments with techniques for sculpting structures and mold making for metal casting. This process of play and discovery is layered alongside an exploration of ideas which stem from her fascinations with natural phenomena, perceptions of time, impermanence and perpetual change.
There is a certain level of order, intention and precision in Mouser's sculptures. Pushing through her process though, she is searching for imperfection—activating her work through asymmetry and life cycles. Her structures are built as evolving systems, where the unification of the whole relies upon variation. In her scaffolding work, there is a central grid with triangulated lines that influence the form and integration of connecting structures. There is an order, yet with multiplied layers of additional volumes, the lines become chaotic. Likewise, in her cast grid series, Mouser explores generation loss where consecutive casts degrade the mold, leading to less precise and lower resolution forms. Combined they create an offset grid: individual tiles align to create a whole, yet through the decay of the casts a process of entropy is captured.
Since 2014, Jane Springwater has been working on multiple distinct series of large-scale drawings and etchings which explore the use of line in a process of repetitive mark-making. Works from three of these series are represented in this exhibition: Decelerating, In Motion, and Between the Lines. Each series reflects a different set of assumptions and rules, but all involve automatic repetition of a committed line. Her works are gestural; whether the marks are small or large in scale, each mirrors the repeated motion of her hand, arm or body.
Driven by exacting processes, Springwater explores the relationship between visual information that is both mathematical and rational, and natural and organic. She creates rule-based systems that govern the repetition of hand-drawn marks and gestures to create works that are both highly ordered and free flowing. She investigates the potential of these systems to generate intricate patterns and unexpectedly evocative forms. From a distance, many of Springwater's compositions suggest a tonal field with subtle variation in texture and depth. Drawing closer, the marks become visible, gradually revealing greater complexity. Slowly, like an object coming into focus under a microscope, the logic of the work becomes discernible, even as the particulars of execution remain elusive.
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Yvonne Mouser is an artist, designer, and maker based in Oakland, California. She was born in San Diego and raised in semi-rural Texas where her love of the tactile world first attracted her to sculpture. Functional interest led her to the furniture program at California College of the Arts where she received a BFA with high distinction in 2006.
Her work is included in private collections, and has been exhibited internationally and nationally including at SFMOMA; the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy; the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia; the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design; the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco; COPIA in Napa, CA; the Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts in Alta Loma, CA; and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA. In 2021, Mouser was a Wornick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Wood Arts within the Furniture Program of California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She has been awarded artist-in-residence at Autodesk's Pier 9 in San Francisco; the Workshop Residence in San Francisco; the Windgate Artist-in-Residence of The Furniture Program in the School of Art + Design at San Diego State University; Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO; and was recipient of the Ron and Anita Wornick Award at California College of the Arts.
Working both independently and with a diverse group of collaborators, Mouser's work exists between the practical and conceptual, spanning furniture design, experiences and fine art. Her own design studio, established in 2009, creates one of a kind objects and small-run production pieces. She co-founded New Factory, a design studio and workshop; Thought for Food, where she focused on the artifacts and experiences of eating; and YMSF, an ongoing collaboration with Tiersa Nureyev of the fashion and textile company Stella Fluorescent. She is represented by Municipal Bonds.
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Jane Springwater received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, with a focus on conceptual art. After working briefly as a graphic designer, she earned her JD from Washington University, and practiced law until 2019 when she left to work full time as an artist.
Springwater participated in the Headlands Center for the Arts Benefit Auction in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2023. In 2018, her work was included in the Material Matters group show at the Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, CA and the Kala Artists Annual Exhibition in Berkeley, CA. In 2023, Springwater received first prize for her etching in the national Works on Paper competition at the LBI Foundation for Arts and Science in Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
Between 2019 and 2023, Springwater's work was also exhibited in national and international juried competitions and received numerous awards, including: Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London, England (2022); Sanchez Art Center (Regional), Pacifica, CA (2022); 12th Annual International Juried Exhibition, Gallery 110, Seattle, Washington (2022); Transitions, 7th Annual Juried Exhibition, The Piedmont Center for the Arts, Piedmont, CA (2021); Searching for Meaning, Gallery Route One, California Society of Printmakers, Juried Exhibition (2021); Ink & Clay 45, National Juried Competition, Cal Poly Pomona, W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery. Honorable Mention Curator's Award (2021); Brand 48: Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Glendale, CA (2020); 10th Annual International Juried Exhibition, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA, People's Choice Award (2020); Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA (2019); Works On Paper, National Juried Competition, LBI Foundation for Arts and Science, Loveladies, NJ (2019); Ink & Clay 44, National Juried Competition, Cal Poly Pomona, W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery, Honorable Mention Juror's Award (2019). She is represented by Municipal Bonds.
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+ Thank you to 10watt Pictures for making a moving portrait of Yvonne Mouser, her philosophy, materials and process.
