Shira Toren

Artist Statement: My work is to make unconscious emotion visceral. I implement a process-oriented approach in my practice, which uncovers the works' themes as much as establishes them. I apply Venetian plaster, graphite powder and mineral pigments, accumulating these materials to achieve a nuanced sense of texture. Layers of material converge in abstract monochrome forms, creating a luminal space where pigments build and collapse. The various built surfaces in my work seemingly excavate elusive memories and their very nature. The final compositions embody this subtle conflict: a latent tension lingering between presence and absence, the rigid and the malleable. My practice draws from a lexicon of abstract forms while tracing the memory of the constructed surface. Raised under constant threat of violence in the Middle East, my monochrome, abstract works evoke a dedicated search for shelter; a need for protection in an uncertain reality. This results in works exuding a sensorial, emotional architecture. There is a potent psychological presence in a deconstructed language of form, texture, and luminal realms, as well as scale.

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