Magical Landscapes:
An Artist’s Fusion of Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints and Laurel’s Architectural Heritage
Paintings by René Shoemaker
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS, USA
"Athens, Georgia artist René Shoemaker explores the way spaces work together and how people inhabit and interact with their environment. For her exhibition at Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, she is investigating both the architecture of Laurel, Mississippi, and the Museum’s collection of Japanese woodblock prints to produce paintings on silk. Inspired by the Japanese aesthetic and representation of objects, patterns and colors, her compositions respond to the designs that are engraved onto the woodblock prints, and incorporate scenes from the Lauren Rogers Museum buildings and the intriguing architecture of Laurel itself. Bringing together these two artistic movements that are separated in space and time, the artist creates a magical landscape that communicates with a new language of images. Shoemaker’s paintings are comparable in size to the prints in the collection, and they will be hung side-by-side in this exhibition."
-Kristen Miller Zohn, curator