Bleach Soaked on Blue with Cuts
scored and bleached paper, 58.25" x 53.5", 2020
Gray Diptych with Bleach and Cuts
scored and bleached paper, 42" x 27.5" each, 2020
Bleach Drip/Pour with Wood Block
bleached paper, 92" x 53.25", 2020
Green Bleach Drips with Cuts
scored and bleached paper, 62.5" x 49.5", 2020
Painted Bleach Stripes
bleached paper, 39.25" x 48.5", 2020
Bleach Spray Gray
bleached paper, 82" x 32", 2020
Blue Spray with Drips
bleached paper, 41.5" x 32.25", 2020
Blue with Bleach Drips
bleached paper, 35.25" x 25", 2020
Bleach and Cuts
scored and bleached paper, 56" x 53.25", 2020
Bleach Drip/Square Pattern
bleached paper, 25.25" x 17.5", 2020
Missy Engelhardt is a Sonoma based artist who received her BFA from Sonoma State Univeristy in 2011, and her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2013. Engelhardt is currently an Art Instructor and Department Head at Fusion Academy in Marin County, CA, as well as an adjunct professor at Sonoma State University since 2015.
Engelhardt explores the properties of paper and the methods of manipulation that are commonly associated with the material. Primarily working with photo backdrop or seamless paper, Engelhardt’s practice revolves around and reinforces the complex attributes of paper manipulation. Inspired by Richard Serra’s Verb List, Engelhardt chooses two to three methods and repeats the process while creating each specific sculpture. Every manipulation is strategic and dictates the following motion, ultimately generating a repetitive cadence while establishing elegant texture and a spatial presence.
Artist Statement
“In my work I use everyday materials to explore the formal qualities of abstract sculpture. I challenge the viewer to interact with these materials, which I transform into something new, and has a spatial presence. In my current paper works, cutting, scoring, and folding signify concepts of temporality, memory, and perception alongside the formal qualities of abstract installations, sculptures, and drawings. These mark-making alterations show their own process—the memory of what was present and what occurred to it—while transforming the material into something that is recognized as unrecognizable.
Seamless paper is meant to be the background of an image. I am interested in subverting that expectation by affecting markings across the surface of the seamless sheet. I turn something reserved for two-dimensional representation in a three-dimensional form in hopes of exposing its material reality. In a sense I am transforming a prop in the main character.
The scale of this work is also a result of the materials industrial function. I really like collaborating with this feature of the paper. Because of the size of the rolls of paper my pieces take on the size of its surrounding architecture citing the work of Richard Sera. Unlike his work my pieces are not rigid and dense. My pieces are fragile, permeable, and absorbent ready to receive touch. Ultimately I strive to give physical form and texture to my chosen material collaboration.”
