Rhea Nowak received her BA from Bennington College in Printmaking and Painting, her MFA from the University of Connecticut in Printmaking and Drawing, and a Master Printer Certificate from Il Bisonte an international school of printmaking in Florence Italy. She is a Professor of Art at SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York where she teaches Printmaking, Foundations, and Artist’s Books. Her prints, mixed media drawings, and unique books have been exhibited in juried and solo shows in both the U.S. and Europe. Always interested in learning and trying new experiences she has worked with Julie Licata, percussionist, and Bret Masteller, electronic musician, to create Trialogs, a collaborative DVD of images and sound.
Statement: I am intrigued by the relationships between rhythm and awkwardness, presence and absence, mark and intention, sign and context. Working with an ever-expanding cast of printmaking plates I print and reprint the plates allowing new meanings to emerge as their relationships and contexts change. I respond to the plates as characters both in terms of letter forms but also as unique individuals.
I am fascinated by our brains capacity to learn to read abstract marks and how our brains are changed by the media we use to communicate. In my work I invite written language to return to its origins in communicative, dancing, mark-making based in physical experiences. I am interested in reconnecting visual communication to our bodies physical experience in hopes of grounding my own and our greater thinking.
Contact: rhea@rheanowak.com
