Silence
Image:
(left) Sarah Hirneisen, What Remains, 2023, 18” x 13”, Paper casting of prickly pear skeleton
(right), Shawn Camp, If You Can Take It, I Can Take It, 2023, 20” x 16”, oil and mixed media on Masonite
Shawn Camp & Sarah Hirneisen
Exhibition Dates: March 3 – April 1, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, March 3, 7-10 pm
About
In Silence, Shawn Camp and Sarah Hirneisen create artworks that explore the absence of sound where there was sound before. Both artists use their mediums to make quiet gestures and examine surface quality and texture, with a subtle use of color. In Camp’s recent work, ambiguous spatial relationships arise from simple geometric imagery embedded into thickly applied oil paint. Slightly reminiscent of landscapes buried under a fresh blanket of snow, bleached out colors focus attention on the structure of the paintings - revealing his ongoing fascination with materiality and surface. Hirneisen is exploring the idea of remnants and looks to transitions that happen in nature when triggered by environmental stressors. She uses the process of casting to freeze a moment in time and pause the process of deterioration. Mending the casts back together imbues the work with a visible handmade element.
Shawn Camp grew up in Coeur dʼAlene, Idaho and completed an MFA in Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. His paintings, videos, and sound pieces exploit the effects of context and light on our perception - contrasting the ephemeral nature of awareness with the illusion of constancy. His work has been written about in Glasstire, Sightlines, Austin Chronicle, Austin American Statesman, Aether Magazine, and Cantanker and has shown in New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, and Austin. He has been featured in South by Southwest, ArtPrize, and New American Talent and is included in numerous public and private collections. Shawn is based in Austin, Texas, where he is Assistant Department Chair of Art and Professor of Painting at Austin Community College.
Sarah Hirneisen is an Austin based artist using three-dimensional materials and processes to elevate familiar and everyday objects. Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, she received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and her MFA from Mills College in 2011. Hirneisen has done residencies through Free Oakland UP and the Hungarian Multicultural Center. She has been awarded a Community Initiatives grant through the City of Austin, an Individual Artist Grant through the City of Oakland’s Cultural Arts Program and a Phelan, Murphy & Cadogan fellowship from the San Francisco Foundation for graduate students in the arts. She currently heads the Sculpture Department at Texas State University in San Marcos. Hirneisen has exhibited her work extensively throughout the US as well as Hungary, Korea and England.
