In the long slow summer of 2020 Kathleen Kucka, artist and former curator of the Shirley Fiterman Art Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, headed up to her 1850s country barn in Falls Village, Connecticut to make large scale works that would have been impossible for her in the city. During that time she discovered a unique building in the center of Falls Village that seemed to be lying fallow: A former post office, town hall, plumbing shop, and grocery store, this edifice was a bank just prior to the town acquiring it in the early 1960s. Twenty years ago, the Canaan Board of Selectmen began renting spaces on the first-floor to artists for their studios. Kucka saw a unique opportunity to bring artists she admired in the city to her own doorstep and in the process add life to her Connecticut community. An introduction to the powers that be led to a meeting with the town council, and before she knew it, she had herself a gallery.

Furnace – Art on Paper Archive is pleased to present Hermine Ford: Normally Invisible, featuring new paintings and works on paper, May 7 – June 12. The opening reception for the artist is Saturday, May 7 from 4:00 – 6:00pm.

Inspired by ancient mosaics, Ford creates shaped canvases and works on paper that reflect some of the timeless imagery she has gathered on her travels. Especially her visits to Rome and her interest in the layering of historic remnants created by past civilizations that have fueled her work for decades.

In Normally Invisible, three shaped canvases are shown in context with a selection of works on paper, highlighting the lively exchange between the two mediums.

The works on paper are unique with splashes of color and spontaneous energy. They stand in contrast to the shaped canvases whose forms evoke shards of broken tile and establish a fractured space. Ford’s paintings present like objects, found or discarded, with dashes of vibrant color and exuding an inner glow.

Furnace – Art on Paper Archive

107 Main St., Falls Village

As the daughter of first-generation Abstract Expressionist Jack Tworkov, Hermine Ford grew up immersed in the counterculture of Abstract Expression and spent her childhood surrounded by her father’s inner circle of influential American painters including William de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg. With such a significant upbringing, Ford was almost fated to be a painter, despite a natural desire to set herself apart from the strong male figures in her life.

Eventually and courageously, she gave into destiny and began a longstanding career as an artist in her own right, developing a singular style of painting that examines materiality of the natural and built environment through colorful perforated patterns that combine formal abstraction with technical drafting.

A current solo exhibition of her work, Normally Invisible, on view at Furnace - Art on Paper Archive in Falls Village, CT, presents an intimate selection of works on paper and shaped canvases that highlight the meticulous process and complex concepts behind her well-regarded works.