Paula Menchen, submitted artwork
Paula Menchen
Painting
Minneapolis
Paula Menchen’s work incorporates memory, textures, and surfaces, deconstructing and reconstructing the pictorial space. Born in East London, Paula immigrated to the US at age 2, growing up in Los Angeles. She earned her BFA from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles and studied at Parsons in New York. Immigrating for a second time to the USA in 2022 led her to question home, belonging, what is familiar and what is foreign, preservation and destruction. Paula’s work can be found in collections in America, England, Belgium, Spain and Portugal and has also been exhibited in Japan, Holland and Italy.
Works
Paula Menchen, submitted artwork
Ongoing themes I am investigating are questions of home, belonging; what is familiar and was is foreign, preservation and destruction. Experimenting with techniques I construct compositions, fragmenting them into surface abstractions. Deconstructing surfaces to establish connections between layers, integrating surfaces and physical spaces found in architecture and provocative landscapes from memory. My work explores the materiality, process and tactility of both painting and printmaking. I explore the connections between various materials using mediums to weave together cultural and pictorial spaces within a personal narrative. Using landscape and seascapes as inspiration, I juxtapose the ideas of vast spaces in contrast with intimate places focusing on the ephemeral. The journey as experience is essential to why I deconstruct surfaces investigating what is familiar and what is obscure or unknown. I am constantly contemplating the beauty and ethereal quality of nature and places I once called home. I Poetically discover the intersections and tactility of Japanese Washi Paper with painting and printmaking creating evocative and suggestive layered painting emphasizing tactile surfaces and transformative colors. My collage works are a direct result from my time spent in Tokyo & Echizen learning Mokuhanga, the centuries-old woodblock print tradition in Japan and handmade Kosho papers. I approach landscape paintings from a tactile space focusing on the materials and process.
