Imperfect & Impermanent: Exploring a Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic by Vicky Lentz

The Collection, Imperfect and Impermanent

All of the work in this exhibition started with an Artsnb Creation Grant to create surfaces and images that captured an essence of the passage of time and wear. I gratefully acknowledge their support for this series.

During 2023, a call was put out to the public to donate old books, sewing patterns, magazines, paper, wall covering, etc. and I used these donated materials to create the basis for the collaged surfaces in this series. I experimented with differing ways of aging and marking the painting surfaces.

In this collection of works you will see several paintings that have a smaller still life on a more abstract background. This exploration is intentional and puts aside traditional norms of what a painting composition should be. I find that the painting within a painting allows for me to create a surrounding environment for the still life work that speaks to the nature of the objects.

I also firmly believe the digital age of computers and monitors has us seeing in a whole new way. Information online comes in blocks on the same screen, information is divided, videos and graphics and sound run and advertisements appear at the same time and our contemporary methods of visual storytelling are changing rapidly. Will this effect the visual artist in the standard and accepted rules of composition and the analysis of the picture plane? I truly believe it will.

The Wabi Sabi aesthetic where nothing is perfect or permanent and the principle that beauty lies in imperfection inspired this series.