Gravura Brasileira

"As Águas do Futuro / Waters of the Future"

Florence Neal

Opening - August 13 - September 15, 2022

"As Águas do Futuro / Waters of the Future"

“As Águas do Futuro” is a public engagement exhibition about water, using water-based woodcut prints. Viewers are invited to answer the question, “What is the color of the water of the future?”  Their answers are rendered visible in hand-carved, hand-printed woodcuts employing water-based pigments (mokuhanga) on Japanese (washi) paper.  Mokuhanga (moku-wood, hanga-print) uses the traditional printing methods of the Ukiyo-e Japanese technique.

“As Águas do Futuro” is the first gallery exhibition in Brasil. The installation brings together 150 prints showing responses by people from Brasil and the United States. The exhibition will include a series of wood-water mokuhanga prints created in Brasil (2018). 

During the exhibition Florence will be in the gallery for several Saturdays to engage visitors and hand print responses while demonstrating the mokuhanga technique. Each participant in the project will receive a "Águas do Futuro” button designed by the artist. 

A sound environment "Pingos/Ondulação/Corrente" is by the composer Michael Kowalski. ("Droplets/Wavelet/Current") was created especially for the installation.

The project began in 2018 at the Sacatar Foundation Artist in Residence program in Bahia, Brazil. The artist worked on-site at the Itaparica Cultural Center and the Itaparica Library, asking the question and demonstrating the water-based printing technique. 

The artist is grateful for the support of Sacatar Foundation for the opportunity to realize this project in Bahia, Brazil. Special thanks to supporters of the ongoing project: Jule Collins Smith Museum (AL), Five Myles (NY), Keiko Hara (WA), Galeria Gravura Brasileira (SP) and the Corn Center for Visual Arts (GA).

Entrevista para o blog "Artists and Climate Change”:

https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2021/12/20/waters-of-the-future/ 

Florence Neal

Bio

Florence Neal is an artist who makes prints, drawings and public art installations inspired by nature. Her prints and artist’s books can be found in major national and international collections.

A special interest within her work is the traditional Ukiyo-e Japanese water-based woodcut technique, recognized today as mokuhanga.  She attended the first International Conference of Mokuhanga in Kyoto, Japan in 2011. Two years later, she was awarded a five-week residency for Advanced Study at MI-LAB (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) in Kawaguchiko, Japan to study with master printers. At the end of the residency, she hiked to the top of Mt. Fuji, a spiritual pilgrimage, still resonating within her work.  In 2024 she will travel to Japan for the 5th International Mokuhanga Conference.

In 1985, Florence founded Everglade Press and in 1990, she co-founded the Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook, Brooklyn and currently serves as its Director of Exhibitions. Her home and studio are in Brooklyn, New York.

Her work is in the public collections of Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY; The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA; Columbus Public Library, Columbus, GA; Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, NY; Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn, AL; LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange, GA; Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; New York Public Library, Department of Prints, New York, NY; Omaha Public Library, Omaha, NB; and University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL.  In 2014, the Pollock Krasner Foundation awarded her a Fellowship for traditional printmaking and her innovative use of prints in public art installations. 

 ela recebeu uma Bolsa da Pollock Krasner Foundation pelo conjunto da sua obra e pelo uso inovativo da técnica da gravura em instalações de arte pública.