Artist Statement
I am inspired by the western landscape, which has navigated me through my life. I am interested in how places tell stories, create belonging and transfer meaning. Applying the geography of the High Rockies and the Colorado river as a point of departure, my work is an expression of environmentalism, personal identity and play. I use papermaking, printmaking, and collaged lithographs to communicate environmental decline and the water crisis in the West. Landscapes of the West are rendered with a lens of surrealism - as if there is no foundation, as a foundation would express a clear recognition of identity. Trained as a printmaker, my imagery is transferred to paper, wood, and to old sign substrates. The plates often become the art piece itself, as a prompt for further art constructs. There is an environmental message to this process. Using printmaking plates as part of my work often lends to inquiry, further experimentation, and an unplanned accident or discovery, and the re-purposing of materials.
Time and time again, the yield becomes images and objects that create a sense of abstract place, allowing for realism and abstraction to intersect.
BIO
Fawn Atencio is an interdisciplinary artist whose work ranges from handmade paper installations, paintings, to large scale interactive collages. She has used papermaking, printmaking, clay and collage to explore environmental decline, the water crisis in the West, how geography represents our identity, and how places tell stories and create meaning. Atencio received her MFA in Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University St. Louis, MO., a program known for its large scale experimental approaches to printmaking and papermaking. She assisted master printer Maryanne Ellison Simmons at Island Press (Wash U.) on projects for Nick Cave, Yizhak Elyashiv, and Juan Sanchez.
Her work has been exhibited at the University of Guam, Mangilao Guam; SUNY Oneonta Fine Art Center; the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City,MO; The Center for Visual Art, Denver, CO; The Denver Art Museum; Redline Contemporary; and various Colorado and stateside galleries and museums. It's held in numerous private and public collections, including The Turner Print Museum, The Siena Art Institute; BMA (Braunschweigsche Maschinenbauanstalt AG.), Germany; The Southern Graphics Council International Archives, Knoxville, TN.; The California College of the Arts Hamaguchi Print Collection, and more.
Her work has also appeared in Apogeo Spatial; Frequencies: A Genealogy of Spirituality, The Social Science Research Council, NY; Here There: The Poetics of Place, Ithaca, NY,; Understanding Our Mountains, The Concord Monitor, Forecasting: Climate Change and Water Impact, Museum of the White Mountains, NH., and Americas Paperworks. She has curated and organized 6 print portfolio exchanges, each having traveled around the US, and placed in special collections each year. For information on where the work has been placed, please see “collaborations” page.
