buff terracotta
16 x 16 x 4 inches
Michael Klein • Sep 27
Kathy Forer—Emerging Talent
While researching works for an exhibition a few years ago, specifically looking for works influenced by the city of New York—CITY LIVES was the title of this 2015 exhibition in lower Manhattan—I discovered online the work of Kathy Forer.
Quietly and modestly with very little fanfare, Forer works at home creating small wall relief tableaus. Her art is deeply personal, made up of memories and stories connected to each piece, yet though personal she translates these events into subjects that have a universal appeal and understanding since they use the language of architecture as their core. Windows, doorways, halls are carved in thick clay, her preferred material, to form intimate vignettes. In all her work Forer uses a technique of foreshortened perspective. This process heightens the drama and exaggerates the mood of each setting or place.
Unabashedly Forer combines and juxtaposes the early Renaissance spatial proportions of say a Piero della Francesca with the very modern psychological space of works by Balthus or Giacometti. Nonetheless, even compositions that are minus figures the moods are very much felt and visually intriguing because of her sense and use of space. Her signature technique of deep carving results in strong shadows which in turn add to the overall effect of these very elegant works.
When it comes to titles some pieces are just identified by their location, Entrance or Stairway, others are rooms with a more special association: Annunciation or Last Supper, for example. The viewer is left, in either case, to imagine the narratives that these rooms suggest and the lives lived within them.
