New work by Alexa Horochowski, published by Highpoint Editions
On View: February 3, 2017 – March 25, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017 from 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Highpoint is honored to present Vortex Drawings, an exhibition of monumental works from Highpoint Editions’ first collaboration with Alexa Horochowski, a Minneapolis-based artist who is known for her sculpture and installation art that addresses the interrelatedness of natural forces, globalization, culture, and matter.
Horochowski’s Highpoint Editions work explores the impartiality of natural forces that bring together matter of various sorts without differentiating trash from mineral or toxic from organic. Inspired by vortices found in nature such as dust devils and the Pacific Ocean trash vortex, Horochowski's newest body of work imitates these natural phenomena. Through the use of a circular system of barrel fans set up on the third floor of The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, she used her manufactured wind vortex to create an experimental type of mechanical drawing. Horochowski placed man-made, non-biodegradable debris, coated with art materials such as oil stick, graphite, and chalk in the vortex and observed their interaction. Plastic bottles, Styrofoam cups, and polystyrene packing peanuts skipped, spun, and rolled around, creating a hypnotizing blur. These fascinating movements were "recorded" as the objects struck the paper or Tyvek placed on the ground beneath, making marks along the way.
Each work is utterly unique, ranging from the pointilist cloud created by the movement of thousands of polystyrene packing peanuts to a Golden Ratio spiral created by the force of a single Styrofoam cup. A combination of mechanical drawing and experimental printmaking, these works further blend artistic media and advance the art of printmaking into a new realm.
Manufactured Vortex from Alexa Horochowski on Vimeo.
About Alexa Horochowski:
Raised in Patagonia, Horochowski and her family moved to the United States when she was nine. She received her MFA at the University of Michigan and has exhibited work regionally at The Minneapolis Institute of Art; Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis; The Soap Factory, Minneapolis; and Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN. She has also exhibited her work nationally and internationally at Braga Menéndez Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina; The Drawing Center, New York City; Praxis International Art, New York City & Miami; and the Iris and Gerald Cantor Gallery, Worchester, MA. A recipient of the McKnight (2003 & 2014), Bush (2004), and Jerome Fellowships (2001), Horochowski has also been an artist-in-residence on three different continents. She is currently teaching at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
Additional Reading:
- And Watching Them, So Were We – Critic and curator Johanna Burton on Alexa Horochowski's Vortex Drawings
- Art awhirl – Dylan Thomas on Vortex Drawings via Southwest Journal
- Vortex Drawings featured on MPR's Art Hounds
- Susan Tallman on Vortex Drawings (Art in Print, March–April 2017)
This program is funded in part by: The Harlan Boss Foundation, The Patrick & Aimee Butler Family Foundation, HRK Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, and the David and Leni Moore Family Foundation. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.