Paper Routes—Georgia Women to Watch 2020

The 2020 Paper Routes: Georgia Women to Watch exhibition focused on the transformation of paper into complex works of art. Paper is a ubiquitous medium that is made from a variety of materials, and the artists represented by the national and international committees in Women to Watch exemplified this variety of production.

In Georgia, five female artists working in paper were selected for an exhibition hosted by MOCA GA from January 25, 2020- March 7, 2020. Women to Watch 2020 was the sixth installment of NMWA’s exhibition series that features emerging or underrepresented artists from the states or countries in which the museum has outreach committees.

The five artists chosen by Consulting Curator Michael Rooks were Sanaz Haghani, Imi Hwangbo, Jeruisha Graham, Lucha Rodriguez and Whitney Stansell. Click their names below to watch their videos with NMWA Curators.

Sanaz Haghani
Born and raised in Iran, Haghani recently received her MFA in printmaking at the University of Georgia. Haghani’s incisive, deeply engaging work examines women’s role in Iranian culture and how the hijab, social class and other forces keep women’s behavior and freedom in check.

Imi Hwangbo
Drawing on her Korean heritage, University of Georgia professor and Dartmouth and Stanford graduate Hwangbo’s works on paper are based on Korean wrapping cloths, called pojagi. These four-cornered cloths, which are used for wrapping, carrying or covering objects, are often decorated with geometric patterns and floral motifs.

Jeruisha Graham
Using a single sheet of black cotton paper mounted on white artist board, Graham’s series “Undercurrents” explores the discontent, unrest, and tension felt by many in an increasingly polarized society. A widening socio-economic divide, daily injustices perpetrated towards anyone who is perceived as “other,” and the continued struggle for gender equality fuel frustrations that lie just beneath the surface of our daily interactions. “Undercurrents” expresses this slow burning unrest and an uneasiness about the future.

Lucha Rodriguez
In her “Knife Drawings” series, Caracas, Venezuela-born Rodriguez uses hand-cut paper, watercolor and the play of light to create remarkable topographies, like scars or the play of wind on sand. Using as many as 10,000 individual, superficial cuts on paper, each cut is meant to redirect light across the surface of the paper, creating subtle areas of shadow which react to environmental lighting conditions. A monochromatic wash of watercolor similarly uses a simple effect to create incredible color variations.

Whitney Stansell
Evoking paper dolls and vintage school primers, College Park-based artist Whitney Stansell’s work taps into a potent vein of personal family history and what she calls “the rich Southern tradition of storytelling and the way stories and histories must be pieced together and solidified…and passed along.” Stansell uses delicate, whimsical drawings to chronicle the winding road of her family’s past.

Georgia artist Lucha Rodriguez was selected to represent the Georgia Committee for the National . Read her interview with NMWA here.