Exhibition: Dappling

January 2, 2020

Posted In: Events, Gallery Exhibitions

The Patton-Malott Gallery presents Dappling, the first US solo exhibition of Montreal-based craft artist and furniture maker Emma Senft. This exhibition will focus on Emma’s wood carvings, which pair modern fabrication technology with traditional craft to create stepped compositions of intersecting geometric and organic lines. The textures are inspired by the dynamism of hand-carved surfaces that cannot be efficiently replicated or achieved by computer methods. The outcome is a surface that is undeniably crafted, that inherently communicates evidence of the human hand and the subjectivity of the maker. Aesthetically motivated by sensorial experiences, they are a process of translating an ephemeral atmosphere into a material object, such as the way light and environmental noise have a sense of texture. These carvings contrast a meandering ambiguity of surface and form against the firm materiality of carved solid wood. Emma has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles and has participated in Artist-in-Residence programs at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. She is currently a finalist for the 2019 emerging craft artist François-Houdé prize in Montreal, QC.