Jaz Graf, Graffiti 03, 2014, monotype, 12 x 9 inches, courtesy of the artist
Artist
About
As an artist, I conjugate. I create lineages in different combinations of media which reflect variations in voice, tense, mood and of the mediums themselves. My body of work includes traditional and contemporary forms of print, installations, sculptural paper and drawings. The work is typically directed by concept and question, most often the starting point is writing. Language and text itself, can communicate ideas, convey emotion and act as an expressive motif. In my recent (and ongoing) series, Eviscera , narratives from old sketchbooks and personal journals are transcribed and printed lithographically onto muslin, referencing an act of evisceration in which guts appear outside the body (book). Markmaking is a form of writing. It is a visual gesture conveying sentiment, however muted or unidentifiable. I utilize scribble marks to suggest the coupling of the written word and drawn image.
My approach involves deconstruction and reconstruction of materials and impressions with an emphasis on a physical process. I believe that my body of work, like a physical body, has both voluntary and involuntary functions. Balancing these forces is necessary in its sustainability. I am inspired by languages, nature, human nature, and the practice of play. Confronting dualities is part of my work; understanding relationships which are oppositional and contradictory yet indivisibly connected. I explore boundaries, areas that reside in between. This periphery is often where conflict can be confronted, and/or synergy can be developed.
Jaz Graf works with paper and print, incorporating experimental techniques. She often combines materials while exploring variations and multiples. Writing and drawing are the starting point, followed by a tendency to deconstruct and rebuild impressions. Concepts dictate the medium and often explore personal histories, dualities and language. Jaz exhibits locally and internationally, has been featured in AM New York News, The Jersey Journal and on NJ’s Public Broadcast Channel, NJTV. She is a keyholder and former Vice President of Manhattan Graphics Center, a fine art print studio in NYC. For over 10 years, she has worked with a nonprofit focusing on freshwater conservation.
This exhibition is made possible by Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s Seed Grants. The purpose of the Seed Grant Galleries is integration: of spaces, of voices, and of intellectual/aesthetic disciplines. Each of the five year-long pop-up exhibitions will appear in a non-art space in order to enhance Rutgers’ academic environment by expanding on the ways in which knowledge can be acquired outside the classroom. Seed Grant Galleries will be established through the collaborative efforts of those within and without the University context, will highlight the relevance of visual literacy in understanding our intellectual landscape, and will provide platforms for voices that historically may have been excluded from the History of Art or recognized academic pursuit.
