Conceptual Marbling with Artist Sheryl Oppenheim
This spring, the Jewish Museum welcomes Sheryl Oppenheim to lead the latest in its ongoing series of contemporary artist-led studio workshops inspired by current exhibitions.
In conjunction with the exhibition Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Your Place or Mine…, on view through August 5, the Jewish Museum invited artist Sheryl Oppenheim to lead the two-session workshop Marbling and Conceptual Paper on Thursday, April 10 and Thursday, April 17. Participants will learn how to create original marbled paper designs and collaged sculptures inspired by Chaimowicz’s innovations with decorative aesthetics and forms.
We sat down with Oppenheim to discuss how Chaimowicz’s work is ahead of its time, the complexities of paper marbling and collage, and what participants can look forward to in her upcoming class at the Jewish Museum.
— Chris Gartrell, Assistant Manager of Adult Programs and Rachael Abrams, Associate Manager of Studio Programs
In our studio workshop, participants will learn how to make sheets of marbled paper. How did marbling become central to your work? How has your relationship to the technique evolved over time?
My first job in New York was at Talas, a bookbinding supplier where I worked for four years. I was super attracted to the marbled paper they sold and would sometimes buy sheets of it to cut up and use in my paintings and drawings, which was never satisfying because the paper was already so beautiful that doing anything to or with it didn’t quite make sense. I had long been interested in beautiful and intricate patterns, but had been frustrated by trying to bring that beauty into my paintings through other methods like screen printing and stenciling, and especially my hand.
After a couple of years at Talas, I bought a short manual on paper marbling and started to experiment in my studio. I stopped painting for almost three years while I made my first marbled papers and books from it. I was also becoming very interested in books through my friendships with some of Talas’ clients, and definitely the day to day interactions with marbling and books led, after a few years, to me bringing these ideas into my own work. Auspiciously, I met Corina Reynolds and Kimberly McClure around the time I started marbling, and right when they founded Small Editions. I have been making books with Small Editions ever since. My friendships with other marblers and my research contribute to the feeling that I have only barely scratched the surface of marbling, books, and paper… there is still so much more to learn.
When we visited your studio we saw artist books, collages, and paintings that have emerged from your marbling practice. Can you tell us about the various forms that your work has taken? What are you working on now?
I just finished three paintings last year that are among the first observational paintings I have made in years. They are sort of like a still life, but I am looking at my marbling when I paint. I often feel as though I am painting a figure when I paint the marbling, rendering a curve just right here, or a tense narrow line a certain way there. The paintings feel surprising and strange. And although they are small, when they are finished they seem to contain so much space that hanging them on the wall I have a sense they are almost like portals one could walk through into another dimension… but it’s enough that they project that world out.
I spend a lot of time now working with suminagashi, which is Japanese marbling, a technique I have become very passionate about. I made two new books with Small Editions in 2017, and am excited to make more this year. Finally, in early 2017, I collaborated with poet Janelle Poe and Small Editions on a fundraising edition, and we are just about to donate the proceeds to Black Lives Matter. We are hoping to continue our collaboration with a new edition this year.
Marc Camille Chaimowicz also works extensively with decorated paper and collage. What caught your eye in his exhibition ?
I have been teaching collage for two years, and I was excited to see his straightforward cut and paste collage, at the scale my students usually work, which is around the size of a sheet of paper or a little larger. I also like that he puts his hand into his collages with the drawing and painting. Teaching collage has given me a lot of respect for its potential. It seems accessible because the barrier to entry is so low, a magazine, scissors, and a glue stick. But that is also what makes it so difficult, I think that the immediacy of the process can be terrifying. With collage you are immediately confronted by these big questions of art making — scale, color, perspective, composition, not to mention the content, and jumping straight into that can be difficult!
I also feel like Chaimowicz’ sensibilities seem way ahead of his time. His palette and sense of touch reminds me so much of the palettes and style of many really good painters working today. It was totally shocking to see that the big diptych painting was from 1992… I thought for sure it had been made in the last few years. And I love the three-dimensional painted piece with the wood inlaid back. That is wild.
Tell us about what participants will be doing in your upcoming Marbling and Conceptual Paper workshop at the Museum.
The first session will be an acrylic marbling workshop and students will have most of the class to make their own papers. Participants will have their own individual marbling tray and tools, and I will demonstrate how to make a few different patterns. I like teaching a group because even though we all learn the same process it’s rare that at the end of class we can’t tell who made which paper, because everyone still has their own unique style of working and no two students end up making their paper in exactly the same way.
In the second class we will use the marbled papers we made to decoupage (cover in paper) an object such as a small box or lampshade. The idea is to create something that pays homage to Chaimowicz and his ability to permeate functional objects with emotion. We will also make a small, simple miniature book by cutting and folding a single sheet of paper.
Sheryl Oppenheim’s two-session Marbling and Conceptual Paper Workshop will take place the Jewish Museum on Tuesday, April 10 and Tuesday, April 17. Register for the class online. All materials included; All skill levels welcome.
