Martin Werthmann: Woodblock Prints Wilding Cran Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of large scale, monotypic woodblock prints by Berlin based artist Martin Werthmann. Werthmann’s engrossing prints recall the surfaces of paintings that have been built up in layers and then sanded down in areas, revealing glimpses of the history of their own making. Werthmann carves into wood block panels and prints onto paper in multiple layers that form his unique collage-like final pieces. He approaches the process more as installation than painting— boards are screwed to the floor, paper is folded over the inked elements repeatedly, creating many coats, most of the works are the result of 10 or more printed layers. The prints often exceed 6 x 10 feet – dimensions considered unusually large for woodblock prints. On the surface, Werthmann’s works are an aesthetically engaging series of patterns and textures, yet with more investigation the images reveal a tension and subtle melancholy. The motifs and patterns in his prints are created from found images of dramatic events such as car accidents and explosions, juxtaposed with more traditionally beatific elements like picturesque landscapes and water surfaces. The result is an immersive experience of teeming patterns and diffused imagery. ------------------ Herald Nix: Paintings Wilding Cran Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of landscape paintings by Canadian artist Herald Nix. Herald Nix has returned to paint the same landforms over the course of three years, resulting in this series of intimate oil paintings on wood panel. Nix interprets the shifting light and mood materially, forming a rhythm of repeated motifs revealing change and the interrelationship between season, weather, and the person. With each panel, the artist approaches the topic anew, questioning and exploring, moving between content and paint, creating a space for the viewer to enter and contemplate. Recurring landforms first compel attention; the land seems distant, set apart from artist and viewer. Upon closer inspection, a gap forms where painterly gesture, carved lines, and scraped surfaces develop controlled, corrected iterations of an act allowing the viewer in to wander within his spontaneous painting process. Nix’s approach to painting is to explore beauty without irony. He seeks this beauty repeatedly, a subject within reach, in the movement of paint, the interaction of line and texture, fluid form, and emotive color. Rather than allowing his choices to be dictated by nature, the act of painting becomes the focus, and he pursues the abstraction of color and paint in an experiment of discovery within the familiar. Painting the same thing again and again, he and his relationship with it are ever evolving.