GALLERY LINKS
INTERVIEWS + FEATURES
Feature in Seattle Met
Interview with Brush Work Podcast
RESUME
Click here for PDF of my resume
ARTIST STATEMENT
I create hand-written algorithms to transform text documents into colorful oil paintings. The algorithm uses "if/then" statements that connect my abstract visual language to the direct language of a text document. Working with a seed image of a figurative or floral under-drawing, the system instructs me to either cover the organic shapes or pull from them. One small moment in the drawing can cause a ripple effect of painted marks echoing off of and overlapping each other. By designing different zones across the canvas to reflect a different set of rules, I have the ability to establish weight and focal point. The combination of this chance process with my highly designed visual language and color system produces a dynamic tension between controlled and spontaneous elements.
The texts I translate are redacted through the act of creating the painting. Each letter equates to one brush stroke in the painting and as I complete the brush stroke, I mark it off with a dab of paint on the text document. This process produces a secondary painting of the marked-up text which I call an "algorithm byproduct."
I have criteria for these texts that they need to be influential, cause harm, and be current or have an impact on our current society. I often focus on laws or legal documents since those are written accounts which explicitly state the priorities of society or what is accepted as civil. Recently, I have been working with official primary sources that show both objectifying and violent language. I leave visible the violent and objectifying words creating a poem that allows the viewer to be able to try to make the connection between those two concepts without being distracted by the original context. Through the act of transforming them into paintings, I can disarm them and something beautiful and empowered out of them.
BIO:
Ilana Zweschi is a Chicago based artist represented by Foster/White Gallery in Seattle. Her work is held in the collections of Meta, Microsoft, and the Port of Seattle, and she received the DASH artist grant in 2022. She has exhibited nationally, with notable group shows including Tiger Strikes Asteroid in New York, Museum of Museums in Seattle, and Out of Sight: A Survey of Contemporary Art in the Pacific Northwest. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, Maake Magazine, and featured on the opening page of the Culture section of Seattle Met.
Zweschi graduated summa cum laude from Skidmore College in 2011 with a BA in Art and Mathematics minor. In 2014 she earned an MFA in painting from the University at Albany, SUNY, where she received the Departmental Thesis Award.
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