Libby Wadsworth: Always InFormation

Observing, processing, experimenting, arranging: Libby Wadsworth has been busy in her Eugene studio over the last year.  Her practice spans multiple media, including letterpress printmaking, painting, and photography, in which she teases open written language with her thoughtfully composed visual arrangements. Always InFormation presents new work created almost entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic that demonstrates Wadsworth’s evolving interest in blurring the distinctions between text and image. Handset letters of the alphabet operate as aesthetic objects as they float, break apart, or recede into space. Our eyes receive the information, but are we viewers, or readers?

Working in series, Wadsworth subtly presents different moments of investigation and contemplation: in fractures, one of several bodies of work created during this time of collective crisis and social distancing, selected words and pairings dance around shards of a broken teacup. Her latest oil paintings on canvas set text, still life objects, and natural motifs into action, as drips and layers of paint frame stenciled letters. Throughout Always InFormation, Wadsworth finds both the tension and the beauty that exists in our present moment and the spaces “in between” our words and experiences. This exhibition and an accompanying catalog are made possible by the Hartz FUNd for Contemporary Art.

Coming soon: Pre-order now to receive your copy of Libby Wadsworth: Always InFormation in December.

Pre-order catalog now

Libby Wadsworth: Always InFormation (72 pages) documents Eugene artist Libby Wadsworth’s exhibition in the Artist Project Space (on view July 24 through November 7, 2021). This fully illustrated catalogue includes an essay by McCosh Curator Danielle Knapp, an interview between JSMA Executive Director John Weber and Wadsworth, an artist’s statement and résumé, and the exhibition checklist.

This catalog was made possible by the JSMA’s Hartz FUNd for Contemporary Art.