CUTTING HOLES FOR EYES
Works by Nicole Czapinski & Centa Schumacher
September 29-November 4, 2023
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Exhibition Space
Nicole Czapinski and Centa Schumacher are artists highly influenced by material exploration. Czapinski is an interdisciplinary artist and Schumacher is a lens-based artist, and both use novel materials to examine and understand their own experiences with reality and the not-so-real. The artists met at the Vermont Studio Center in 2018 and have been supporting each other ever since. They connected over a shared fascination with the unknown–the sometimes wonderful, sometimes frightening potential of the void. Their collaboration started in earnest in 2021 as they explored diving into each other's practices through a series of call and response experiments. They have exchanged sample pieces, inspirational texts, materials and scraps from their studios, and even finished pieces, giving creative freedom to each other to alter, cut up, and filter the items. In this way they are handing their materials and work into the unknown of the other, letting go of control in exchange for an unknowable result. Their exhibition Cutting Holes for Eyes at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh features a new body of work made possible by the trust built between the artists through their collaborative process.
Gallery Hours (starting 9/29):
Wednesday–Friday, 11:00am–6:00pm
Cutting Holes For Eyes Work Shop
With Nicole Czapinski and Centa Schumacher
Oct 07, 2023
12:00 pm- 3:00 pm
Artist Bios
Nicole Czapinski is an interdisciplinary artist whose long-term explorations of perception combine photography, scanner technology, video, and drawing. Since receiving a BA from Bennington College in 2006, her work has been shown nationally. Recent solo exhibitions include The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Burlington City Arts, and Silver Eye Center for Photography. Her work is included in numerous private collections. She is looking forward to a two-person exhibition, with collaborator Centa Schumacher, opening at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh in Fall 2023.
Centa Schumacher is a lens-based artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She works with a homemade tool assembled from vintage camera elements, creating work that distorts light and perspective. Schumacher has had solo exhibitions at the 707 Gallery, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Paradice Palase in Brooklyn, NY, Aggregate Space in Oakland, CA, and Art Ark Gallery in San Jose, CA. In Fall 2023 she’ll be opening a two-person exhibition with collaborator Nicole Czapinski with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. Schumacher was the director and co-founder of the art gallery Phosphor Project Space from 2018-2021. She received her MFA from San Francisco State University.
Photos by Chris Uhren