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27/4/2004

Steven Travis

Amos Eno Gallery, New York

TAPISSARY: Hieroglyphic Stories from a Clay Village

'For twenty-seven years I have been creating a language called Tapissary, which is inseparable form my art. Both deal with an exotic culture where unlikely mixes of material and ideas occur,' explains Travis, who is mounting this exhibition of manuscripts in Tapissary, paintings, and ceramics. Over the years, Travis has developed a cyclic grammar and a visual vocabulary of thousands of hieroglyphs. The essence from sentences is lifted then spun into rotating cycles. This is an artist's handling of language. A glyph, being by nature a stylized drawing, is the 'sketch', while the grammar fleshes out each phrase by relating to an overall 'composition'. He paints his stories in much the same way, with an eye to opulent detail and complex structure.

The exhibit tells the story of an exiled scribe's return to his clay village, an imaginary civilization whose people speak Tapissary. A sixty-foot scroll and various manuscripts display the language's picture-rich calligraphy; graphic exhibits clarify the language itself; ceramic objects evidence the village's material culture; and a sixteen-foot long icon ornamented with hieroglyphic verses and porcelain medallions dominates the space.

Travis' mural paintings and ceramic sculpture were recently the subject of a one-person show at the Galerie Halle Saint Pierre, in Paris. He has explored aspects of Tapissary in shows in Los Angeles, New York. And Paris. This is the first time Travis is using his language as the main theme of an exhibit. TAPISSARY: Hieroglyphic Stories from a Clay Village blurs the distinction between language and art, reality and imagination.

Reception: Thursday, May 6, 6-9 PM

Amos Eno Gallery
59 Franklin Street - NY 10013
New York

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