Jaq Belcher

On Thursday, May 10th I had the privilege of attending an amazing paper exhibition at the Christopher Henry Gallery entitled A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters. This group exhibition, curated by Diana Ewer, is celebrating the renaissance of cut paper as an artistic medium where 12 international artists have been featured, each working in their in particular expertise whether it be a carefully sliced book or an intricately cut piece of paper...

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The exhibition of drawings at the Garrison Art Center gets a welcome blast of spring color from a collage made of strips of paper and plastic by Jeesoo Lee installed at the entrance. But the austerity of black on white is dominant in the dozen works here, making this show look and feel like an essay in contemporary minimalism.

Closer inspection reveals a greater formal diversity, with the practice of drawing explored from many points of view. There is also an absorbing short video of the artists in their studios, produced by the curators Susan English and Jaanika Peerna in an effort to reveal the artists’ working processes. It brings the studio into the gallery. It also reminds you that until quite recently, drawing was viewed as a preliminary process in the evolution of a work of art — a method of thinking through ideas, a tool for mapping out structure — rather than as an end in itself. These days, drawings are often displayed as independent artworks.

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It all started with a movie, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Country Strong, to be precise. New York-based artist Jaq Belcher read about the Nashville apartment Paltrow and her family lived in during filming and liked some of the art from Tinney Contemporary featured in the spread. Belcher emailed the gallery and got a call from Susan Tinney a few minutes later. That was more than eighteen months ago; now Belcher is presenting her first Nashville show at the gallery. The nineteen-piece exhibition features large-scale cut-paper drawings, including Untitled: seeding, an installation in which the drawing’s 33,000 cutouts are arranged on the floor in front of it…

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