Creative Friendship Transforms Paper Images @ Villa Terrace

Villa Terrace Opens "To Become Day"

Jun. 16, 2012

3:24 a.m.

Friendship defines a new exhibition at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum. “To Become Day: Joey Fauerso and Michael Villequette” opened Friday night in the second level gallery inspired by the museum's Zubar wallpaper in the upper lever room. Both artists freely chat about their collaboration and artwork at the reception on an enchanting summer evening.  Fauerso calls San Antonio home where she teaches at the Texas State University, while Villequette teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The two met in graduate school at UW-Madison, after which Villequette lived in San Antonio before coming to Madison, in the same city as Fauerso. A time in their careers offering a chance to continue this professional friendship. San Antonio's David Shelton Gallery represents both artists, and the Villa Terrace exhibition again conjoins these now cross country friends.<o:p /> Fauerso paints on historic wallpaper, wallpaper without any buildings or figures. She adds these subjects to the cuttings herself after scouring the world via internet for her very particular and unique papers. One paper used in the show had been recently discovered in Germany. The figures placed in her paintings reflect family and friends, and Villequette had modeled for Fauerso in the past, where each figure will be drawn from a photograph taken by the artist. In her painting Interior, three men without shirts create a human bridge by standing in a river at the center of a huge forest.  Other works use only watercolor to build up layers of indigo color as in Fauerso's painting La Fortuna. The image appears to resemble a long waterfall in the night, an homage to the famous Costa Rican landscape that draws thousands of tourists. For this painting, Fauerso applies gestural areas of dark color and then removes the paint in selected areas. This technique leaves a blue and white resist, perhaps a symbolic connection to historical blue and white porcelain or delft tiles displayed in the museum or similar to her historical paper backgrounds that represented great social fortunes, the meaning of the waterfall\'s name.  Villequette's colorful paper sculptures begin in his mind and then become reality through a rough drawing. About two years ago, he began painting the white paper he cuts with acrylics to give surface texture. Then he scissors, slices and glues them, adding details and layers that maximize the brushstrokes and gesture on the very paper itself. In the future, Villequette will be designing even more surface texture for his paper, through pattern and possible ink markings, illustrating that each artwork builds toward the future, taking the paper sculpture fa step further than he had previously.   Two works draw the eye\'s attention in the gallery that overlooks Lake Michigan. A grand, freestanding sculpture titled Lodestar adds an internal foam core and plaster sculpture to Villequette's paper modeling. Intricate and meticulously crafted on this larger scale, his pieces also retain the intuitive color choice he conceives during their creation. A relief sculpture hangs in an clear lucite shadowbox over the fireplace, unusual because the work presents monochromatic shades of grey. Villequette explains this was one of the first pieces in which he experimented with a higher relief structure, so the work approximates Papier Mache or a paper marquette. In this piece titled Grey Guard, graphite powder covers the white paper to create hundreds of various lights and darks, a subtle, mysterious quality embodied in the delicate nuances apparent in the sculptural painting.  Villequette concurrently exhibits at the Racine Art Museum, the upcoming Charles Allis Art Museum exhibition opening in a few weeks and then at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in 2013. And while their careers continue to develop, somehow within every three or four years, Fauerso and Villequette\'s fortunes connect for another collaboration, and this marks the fourth duel exhibition for the pair.The two definitely agree they have influenced each other over this long, valuable relationship. How do their two separate styles converge? Faursmo and Villequette each choose paper as a medium to explore, either historic or painted, that uncovers hidden possibilities. The artists discover the surface quality in their images, the gestural textures, decoration and dimensionality that reflect a common aesthetic vocabulary. In this intimate Villa Terrace exhibition, their contemporary interpretations offer a fascinating reference to the decorative arts with fresh vision. Or to consider the delicate balance between man and the natural world observed when overlooking blue lake and sky, the blooming, colorful gardens and verdant grass beyond the museum\'s terrace outside. How a simple paper medium transcends this delightful and treasured friendship over time.  Villa Terrace Decorative Art Museum presents “To Become Day: Joey Fauerso and Michael Villequette” through September 16. For information and hours:414.271.3656 or www.villaterracemuseum.org.<o:p /> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p /> <o:p /> <o:p> </o:p>

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