Emily Payne: Beyond the Book at Seager Gray Gallery

As a sculptor and former book artist, Emily Payne likes to take apart old books and mine them for their parts. She finds her books in dumpsters or in the discard pile in local libraries. She recycles the books, once functioning primarily as containers for words, and transforms them into a combination of two- and three- dimensional collaged and sculptural works. In works like Letter Shadow and Big Flare, she cuts and reassembles the rectangular book covers into a puzzle-like form that she glues together as her "canvas." She creates multi-layered compositions by attaching pieces of book covers and graphite onto these varied paper surfaces.

The imagery in these works is informed by the shadows of Payne’s extraordinary wire sculptures. Suspended away from the book cover framework, Payne “draws” the shape of the shadow, capturing the moment when light gives shadow form. In Letter Shadow, she is tracing her wire sculpture, Letter. She is literally drawing the outline of a shadow and rather than rendering it in its dark form, the shadow is white against the beautifully modulated graphite surface. The effect is ephemeral and sublime – made even more so by the shining glint of gold leaf in the form on the right.

In Big Flare, the shadow is a preview of her newest series of works in which her wire sculptures are inspired by the structure of pine needles and the way they fan out from their contact point on the stem. It is oddly recognizable, but in their new form, entirely new. In these breakthrough works, Payne has also found exciting ways to play with color - the oranges and reds of the book covers are actually “revealed” rather than painted from beneath the surface of her materials.

In April, we were to have installed Payne’s exciting exhibition, Burst. The pandemic and temporary closure of the gallery prevented the installation and it is not one we wanted to do just virtually. We await the day when viewers can step into the magical atmosphere created by these interactive works with their rhythm of patterned shape and interplay between air, light and shadow. Her explorations mark her as an artist willing to go out on a limb to find new expressions and opportunities, endlessly pushing her materials to the next level.  

Click on the image below to see Emily in her studio.

Emily Payne grew up in Mill Valley, California and Amherst, Massachusetts. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in Ohio and her M.F.A. in Book Arts and Printmaking from San Francisco State University. Stay tuned for the rescheduling of show.