LORI HOROWITZ

My work is a study of personalities and environments that reflect interpretations of everyday life. My images digest the posture of individuals while faces reflect their stories. These strangers are subjects in my continuing series of artwork. These pieces internalize and project mundane, often overlooked interactions of individuals in society, creating compelling imagery and an intimate view of “persona”. There seems to be an accepted social disconnect that enables us to ignore the undesirable or disadvantaged of society. People often choose how they reveal themselves or are perceived by others, unveiling a facade, discarding moral conscience.

I have been experimenting with copper and its’ properties, combing painting along with wire sculpture and theatrical lighting. I have developed a technique where images burned into copper work like two way mirrors changing significantly based on lighting. The light either bounces off the copper pieces reflecting a strong image or travels though the mesh showing a translucent after image creating inter-active sculptures. I burn images into the surface of reflective copper to create subjects that are then sculpted and manipulated with intricate detail. The shadows resemble beautifully shaded graphite drawings.

In my current” series, I have been working in mixed media to create relief figurative sculptures. These pieces depict individuals in society and their interactions in everyday life. I draw from historical use of relief sculpture and bring these methods to current topics. I am always equipped with camera in hand, photographing people in their natural environments. They often share their stories and are happy to be the subject of my work. Other images are candid shots taken from afar when the subjects cannot be interrupted from their actions. I appreciate the challenge of each piece, collapsing three dimensional pieces into 2 and 3 dimensional space. I love the process working with photography, wire, papier mache, copper and painting. My most recent series of encaustic wax and mixed-media relief sculptures, can be lit both from front and back, re- creating the image with depth that brings these pieces to life.

I seem to become somehow bonded to these individuals carefully exploring and interpreting their attitudes. These pieces echo issues of isolation, disassociation and violation, vs. confidence, security, and contentment. My images seek out the moments of quiet humanity rapidly recording the spontaneous unfolding of events. My artwork confronts socio/ psycho issues and brings light to the attention seekers as well as the society’s unseen, creating an intimate view of “PERSONA”.