"Tension through the landscape of nothingness"
Jacob Semko, "Tension through the landscape of nothingness," waterless lithograph on Oakwaraw, chine collé onto Sommerset tin, 43.5" x 94".
JACOB SEMKO
Rouge Gallery, Saskatoon
Sept 10 to Sept 22, 2007
By Jack Anderson
Emphatically committed to the craft of printmaking, young Saskatoon artist Jacob Semko pushes the technological limits of lithography in a two-person exhibition this fall with one of his mentors, Saskatoon printmaking legend Nik Semenoff. Incorporating newer photolithographic techniques as well as traditional chine collé (rice paper first printed upon, then glued to a thicker paper and finally over-printed again), the illusion of his trompe l‘oeil images are complex technical tours-de-force. Often working on the scale of large paintings rather than drawings, Semko has gone so far as to build his own lithographic press, though he’s more than a craftsman. A recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati, he is committed to the art and aesthetics of printmaking — his subtle, evocative works are more than the extravagantly beautiful abstractions they initially appear to be, limning instead a personal territory of tensions and anxieties. Employing photographic representations of tissues and shiny silk fabrics stretched and pulled by tension points, his images externalize a personal and social disquiet familiar in these times.
Represented by: Rouge Gallery, Saskatoon.
