Winter  2023

December 10, 2022 – March 18, 2023 Alexandra Cicorschi Susan Stover

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Colibri Gallery Presents Shape/Shift, an exploration into the transformative creative processes of San Francisco Bay Area artists, Alexandra Cicorschi and Susan Stover. Utilizing unconventional materials in a contemporary procedure of upcycling, these two artists transform mundane materials into extraordinary works of art. There exists a duality between concealing the raw material, yet revealing its grain and history, which holds the viewer’s attention and invites them to explore.
 

Alexandra Cicorschi is an interdisciplinary artist based in San Francisco and holds an MFA from The Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. Cicorschi utilizes raw wood she gathers from demolition sites, discarded furniture found on roadsides, as well as wood that is donated to her. Each piece of wood contains a story that add to each work’s narrative. She begins with a sketch, which is then translated several times. Once rendered, Cicorschi maps the shapes on plywood and begins to construct her compositions using precise angles and miters. She thinks of her work as paintings as she considers the color, grain, and texture of the wood and utilizes them like brushstrokes on panel. Using symbols of conventional beauty found in nature, Cicorschi’s new body of work explores how our perceptions change when we slow down and let our minds wander. What things reveal themselves when the noise of our busy lives quiets and we allow ourselves to be fully in the present?
 

Susan Stover, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Graton, California. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts in Oakland and a BFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her work explores the process of creating as well as the patterns of daily life and considers associated aspects of repetition, meditation, and ritual. Trained in textiles with an interest in cultural history, Stover utilizes traditional fiber techniques and surface design patterns to transform humble materials such as cardboard and house paint into quilt-like objects. Pieces of cardboard are cut to fit together like a puzzle and are painted and distressed. Once assembled by hand-sewing, they create playful abstract compositions that function on a micro and macro scale.