White Horizon, 2012
In Seborovski's work, paper is the essential medium. Taking an unusual approach, she builds collages rather than cutting and pasting, and crafts material with a complete acknowledgement of its space and dimensions. These works on paper are treated as three-dimensional objects, inviting spectators to consider and perceive different points of view, even changing these points of view before their eyes.
Her compositions may function as mandalas, demanding a deep contemplation, or as cellular beings, with organic and metamorphic qualities. There are conscious and unconscious visual and elemental references to Zen philosophy, African and Asian art, Minimalism and Organic Surrealism. Each is connected by the way the paper is handled, including the tactile qualities and the reactions other materials have during their interaction.
Depending on the composition of paper and fibers, the graphite acts as a shield to the ink that crawls from behind cuts made on the surface. This original cutting technique of Seborovski's allows the collage to build not only through the incorporation of materials onto the paper, but also through the triangular or diamond shaped incisions made underneath. Pigment and ink appear through these incisions from different angles, creating drips that contribute to the dimensionality and texture of each work.
Into the Night, 2013, merges the smooth surface of acrylic enamel, with the wrinkled appearance of the paper and the light-capturing effect of the graphite. Broken in two sections, the composition repeats a known pattern in Seborovski's work with the idea of passage and transition. Night emerges on the surface in the same way the collage of circled shapes rise from behind. Reminiscent of atomic structure, tubular forms connect these oval figures creating a microcosm where atoms and organic matter are depicted through the manipulation of paper, pigments, and shapes.
In Rising, 2012, the circular figures reappear, crossed by light reflecting lines. These lines are not drawn, but generated by aluminum leaf and graphite that act as a reverberating agent. Once more, the paper ceases to be simply the surface in which the pencil marks its prominence; instead, it forms the surface and at the same time what lies beneath. Autumn Composition, 2014, is coated in a veil of graphite applied on rice paper. Simultaneously covering and revealing, the painting of circular shapes seem to be in perpetual motion.
These works on paper are a sophisticated look back to the minimal compositions of Seborovski's work in the 80's, in both the use of materials and the way they interact with paper. They develop the artist’s interest in the continued state of flux - not in their inherent reality, but through the way they are perceived. In our contemplation of her works and assimilation of what we see resides the final incision that completes them.
Born in 1960 in California, Carole Seborovski received her BFA from the California College of the Arts in Oakland. She earned her MFA at Hunter College in New York where she is still an Artist in Residence. Seborovski has exhibited her work in the United States and Europe since 1984. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of major museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in California, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum and the MoMA in New York, and the National Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.
