Vija Celmins, Dumfries

About

Latvian-American artist Vija Celmins is best known for her highly wrought photo-realistic drawings and paintings. She employs found images, in common with many of her contemporaries who emerged from the Los Angeles art scene of the sixties and seventies. Often taking photographs of natural phenomena as a starting point, her work repeatedly reinterprets the same images, initially captured by camera or telescope, to produce intricate portraits of such delicate scenes as deserts, star-filled night skies, oceans and cobwebs. In her prints and drawings she explores traditional printing techniques and the material density of charcoal, graphite and ink.

Her exhibition at Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, presented twenty-five works on paper spanning the period from 1974 to 2002, showcasing important examples of her signature themes. The exhibition featured four unique drawings, including the early Untitled (Desert-Galaxy) 1974 and Web #1 2001. Accompanied by a selection of four prints of the same subject, this drawing was the first in a major series of works that Celmins made of spider’s webs, reflecting the delicate, web-like construction of the universe. Other works in the collection include an important series from the entitledConcentric Bearings which explores different images of turning space.