Catherine Bowen's paintings are elegant meditations characterized by the tension between formal symmetries and her airy and permeable painted translucencies. Bowen states that her paintings recall nature while bringing together "references of architecture, calligraphy, and the body, in a visceral, yet structural manner." Her gouache and acrylic works on paper are small in scale, which allows us to access her poetic visual metaphysics.

<< Catherine Bowen ,Untitled (ss-s, press), 2004,
      Gouache, 13" x 12 1/4'

Heejae Suh uses the self- portrait as the primary vehicle for her expressive woodcuts, etchings, and collages. The relative immediacy of these techniques allows Suh to best convey surrealistic visions of her inner life. The figures of her self- portraits are stylized and often marked (tattooed) with her personal iconographic symbols - a flower over her eye, a "map" on her torso.

Perhaps Suh's recent explorations in self-portraiture are a result of her frequent relocation from country to country. She says: "For five years I have been roaming from one country to another country, while each time staying only two years. This has made me change the theme of my work to a more nostalgic or journalistic one. Living a long time in another country made me get an idea about other cultures and also liberate me in the technical part and themes of my work..."
 
Heejae Suh, Self Portrait, 2001, woodcut >>