“Architecture is frequently considered to be political and cultural symbols of fine art, especially if the architecture’s aesthetic elements are identified. Historical civilizations are often identified and known through their architectural achievements.”– D. Rowland.
Temporal Impermanence, inspired by the recent use of Detroit as a model for economic reconstruction, explores Detroit through its architectural remnants, from its former glory and its present strifes. This work is a visual story that addresses dysfunctional political culture, troubling social segregation, education, its social justice, and the artist’s experiences living there as a Detroiter. This series serves as a documentary to give the disappearing buildings a voice, and tells a story of Midwestern promise through a crafted memoir, preventing historical amnesia.
This body of work bears stylistic influences from historical etcher Piranesi and painter Casper David Friedrich, using line and dramatic lighting effects that create emotional awareness of spaces. The use of subdued color with intaglio imbues a tenebristic effect of rich, velvety blacks and deep tonal ranges, evoking empty, isolated feelings and dreamlike scenes. Using layers, the printmaker connects digital layout/printing and photogravure, with traditional etching and intaglio methods on paper to achieve color in precise and predictable ways, allowing for consistent editions.
In this series, the artist addresses archaeological and environmental issues of Motor City, its social climate, and provides links to public consciousness, giving a broader sense of awareness of what has happened and is happening to other urban cities along the rust belt and elsewhere throughout the country.
– Jay Wallace © 2014
MFA Thesis Exhibition
Temporal Impermanence May 2013
BFA Exhibition
Orem in Retrospect December 2009
Jay Wallace is a BFA Design Illustration major and printmaker from Utah Valley University. After a fifteen year career in commercial printing and graphic design, Jay turned to a medium which allows him to creatively combine his love of printing and drawing. Many of his prints display architectural elements executed with the precision of a true draftsman. Jay works in traditional etching on large scale copper plates, alongside with non traditional intaglio methods. He finds inspiration with his fine, delicate lines from Old Masters such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Carl Bloch, along with experimentation on new materials and techniques. Jay’s BFA show Orem in Retrospect was born from his experimental methods in printmaking, and is completely printed on muslin and hand painted in oil. The raw quality of the muslin gives a homespun antiquity to his unique montages. Orem in Retrospect is a collection of eleven prints that enlighten viewers of forgotten history, which is woven into a very personal experience of a city he has called home for thirty-six years.
– Jay Wallace © 2009
