Genesis 1990

Leah De Prizio made this black and white print called 'Genesis', and what strikes me is the materiality of it all, I can feel the cuts into the wood block. I imagine De Prizio looking at the grain of the wood, feeling it with her fingers, and thinking, "How can I coax this material to speak?". The ovals stacked on top of each other, each with a different character: the bottom one, dense and rippling, then the middle with fine lines like a topographic map, and finally, the floating starry sky. It reminds me of the prints of Louise Bourgeois, who also used black and white to such dramatic effect. There is an ongoing conversation between artists across time; each of us is trying to figure out how to make something new out of something old. Painting is an embodied expression, and each mark carries intention.