Lea Basile-Lazarus - New Work

Jeffrey Moose Gallery is proud to announce an exhibition of new works by paper wizard Lea Basile-Lazarus for the months of June and July. The exhibition will run from Friday, June 5th through Tuesday, August 4th. Receptions will be held on First Friday, June 5th from 6 to 8 PM and Thursday, July 2nd, 6-8 PM. On Friday June 5th, a FaceBook video tour will run from roughly 5:20-5:40. Also, on Saturday, June 13th, Ms. Basile-Lazarus  will conduct a mono printing demo in the gallery from 1-3 PM.

Ms. Basile-Lazarus, originally from New Jersey, moved to Chicago where she received an MFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1979, with a concentration in printmaking. She has also studied at the prestigious Oxbow School of Art in Michigan, studying mono printing, silkscreen and paper making. She taught art in public and private schools for 28 years, received a teacher’s Fullbright grant to learn about Japan’s art, culture and educational system and received a grant to visit schools and villages in Ghana, West Africa. For several years she has traveled to the renowned Hook Pottery Paper in La Porte, Indiana to make paper and her extraordinary paper pulp paintings in a unique studio/homestead/farm environment. The paintings are made with pure paper pulp and pigments and NO paint. This exhibition consists entirely of paper pulp paintings.

There is chromatic variety in the selections: black and white is contrasted with works that have soft, spring like pastels, while others mix primaries with doses of black, creating depth. The works are displayed in a variety of ways: some hang like scrolls from a wood brace, others are framed in float frames with the rough deckled edges exposed, while some are simply hung from huge paper clips. In an effort to both keep the weight down and makes the works more accessible, the scroll and float frame works are coated in a thin layer of matte wax, sealing the paper, protecting it from moisture and dirt, eliminating the need for glass and emphasizing the paper’s soft texture.