August 27 - September 19, 2018

Jill O'Bryan at Texas State Galleries

Jill O’Bryan
August 27 – September 19, 2018
Texas State Galleries
233 West Sessom Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666

This exhibition pairs Jill O’Bryan’s Ground and Breath Drawings, two separate but related bodies of work. The Ground Drawings (or “Frottages”) are made in New Mexico’s high desert, where the artist rests oversized sheets of paper along the mesa and then rubs them with graphite. In so doing, O’Bryan renders an intricate impression not only of a moment within the rock’s geologic formation, but also of her singular interaction with the ground.

O’Bryan’s Breath Drawings also have a corporeal quality. On square sheets of rice paper, the artist registers her breaths in hours-long sessions, over days, weeks, and years. Her record-keeping textures the paper with each breath marked and layered upon its surface.