Beth Ganz

'Mount Kenya, Kenya' — from the series 'Axis Mundi', Contemporary

2020

Beth Ganz, 'Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka', copperplate photogravure etching, edition 10, 2020. Signed, titled, and numbered 6/10 in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression in warm black ink, on cream, wove, cotton rag paper; the full sheet in excellent condition. Image size 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches; sheet size 16 x 15 1/2 inches. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. From the artist's series of 64 photogravure etchings, 'Axis Mundi'. Additional works from the series are available; please inquire. Exhibited: 'Photography in Ink, A Look at Contemporary Copper-Plate Photogravure,' Curated by Leandro Villaro, Penumbra Exhibition Space Gallery, Nov 30, 2022 - March 15, 2023. ABOUT THE IMAGE Adam's Peak is a 2,243 m (7,359 ft) tall conical mountain located in the southern reaches of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. Revered as a holy site by Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, it is well known for the Sri Pada, "sacred footprint," a 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) rock formation near the summit, which in the Buddhist tradition is held to be the footprint of the Buddha, in Hindu tradition that of Hanuman or Shiva, i.e., "Mountain of Shiva's Light." Some Muslims and Christians in Sri Lanka ascribe it to where Adam, the first ancestor, set foot as he was exiled from the Garden of Eden. The legends of Adam are connected to the idea that Sri Lanka was the original Eden, and in the Muslim tradition, Adam was 60 cubits tall. A shrine to Saman, a Buddhist "deity" (seekers who have devoted their lives to spiritual values are deified by Sri Lankan Buddhists) charged with protecting the mountaintop, can be found near the footprint. A bell lies on top of the temple, and tradition holds that pilgrims ring it as many times as they have achieved the pilgrimage to the top of the peak. Sri Pada is first mentioned (as Samanthakuta) in the Deepawamsa, the earliest Pali chronicle, (4th century), and also in the 5th-century register Mahawamsa, where it is stated that the Buddha visited the mountain peak. The log Rajavaliya records that King Valagamba (1st century BCE) had taken refuge in the forests of Adam's Peak against invaders from India, and later returned to Anuradhapura. The Mahawamsa again mentions the visit of King Vijayabahu I (1058–1114) to the mountain. The famous Chinese pilgrim and Buddhist traveler Fa Hien stayed in Sri Lanka in 411–12 CE and mentions Sri Pada. The Italian merchant Marco Polo in his Travels of 1298 CE, noted that Adam's Peak was an important place of pilgrimage. The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta climbed to the summit, which he called Sarandīb, in 1344 CE. In his description, he mentions a stairway and iron stanchions with chains to aid pilgrims in the climb. ABOUT THE SERIES 'AXIS MUNDI' "This body of work focuses on satellite images of sacred mountains around the world—places where heaven and earth are thought to meet. The phenomenon of revering mountains as holy sites is an archetype found in many cultures. "This shared experience finds a visual echo in the ubiquity of images of the earth that are now available to any person with a computer and an Internet connection. What does the specificity of place mean when we can move across the surface of the earth in seconds and reduce everything to a series of pixels? To me, this process recalls abstract painting, which transforms the specific into gesture and form. Rather than treat digital technology as necessarily destructive to human meaning and experience, my work offers new ways of seeing that are reconcilable with the old. To this end, I combine 19th Century Photogravure technique with 21st Century surveillance captures. "Axis Mundi consists of 64 copperplate photogravures. The work is laid out in a grid, which is an arbitrary conversion of the visual world into a flat space that happens both on the picture plane and in the data processing. The title refers to the belief in a 'world center,' often conceived of as a mountain: a place where communication between higher and lower realms is possible. This project is a search for such a center in a world of decentralization and fragmentation." —Beth Ganz ABOUT THE ARTIST Beth Ganz is a contemporary American multidisciplinary visual artist, who lives and works in New York City. She graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA (honors) in Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking. The focus of her work is the intersection of landscape, digital technology, and abstraction. Ganz works in paint, brush, and ink drawing, both independently and alongside digital and analog printing techniques, including photogravure and intaglio printing. Ganz’s work has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, including 'Atlas Project' at Cynthia-Reeves Gallery, 'Up Close and Far Away, Grids and Toiles: Beth Ganz at Wave Hill House,' Wave Hill, and 'Geothermal Topographies' at Reeves Contemporary. She has been shown in numerous group exhibitions, and her work is represented in many public and private collections, including the 9-11 Memorial Museum, the Library of Congress, the New York Historical Society, and the New York Public Library Prints Collection. Ganz teaches workshops in photogravure and intaglio at Manhattan Graphics Center and has been a long-time grantee of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES 2018 – Signal: Tri-State Juried Exhibition (2nd Place), Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York (Juror: Lumi Tan) 2001-2014 – Studio Program, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY 2005 – Johnson & Johnson Purchase Prize, 48th Annual National Print Exhibition, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ 1999 – Prints USA Juror’s Award, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO 1993 – 37th Annual National Print Exhibition (Honorable Mention), Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, NJ 1992 – Small Impressions 1992 (Juror’s Award), Printmaking Council of New Jersey, NJ BIBLIOGRAPHY: MAGAZINES, JOURNALS, NEWSPAPERS, AND ONLINE MEDIA 2018 – Mary Legrand, “A Signal of Invention,” Bedford Record, July 2018 2017 – Sara Mintz, “Profile of an Artist: Beth Ganz,” Journal of the Print World, Vol. 40, #4, October 2017 2017 – Cate McQuaid, “Critics’ Picks, The Ticket: Music, Theater, Dance, Art and more,” Boston Globe, May 2017 4, 2017 2017 – Beth Ganz, “New Prints: Beth Ganz and the Atlas Project Landscape,” Journal of the Print World, I Vol. 40, #3, July 2017 Collections: Duke Energy, Charlotte, NC; Evelyn Lauder Breast Center at SKMCC, New York, NY; Frost Bank, Houston, Texas; Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University; Johnson and Johnson...

Beth Ganz, 'Cerro Paine Grande, Chilean Patagonia', copperplate photogravure etching, edition 10, 2021. Signed, titled, and numbered 6/10 in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression in warm black ink, on cream, wove, cotton rag paper; the full sheet in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches; sheet size 16 x 15 1/2 inches. From the artist's series of 64 photogravure etchings, 'Axis Mundi'. Additional works from the series are available; please inquire. Exhibited: 'Photography in Ink, A Look at Contemporary Copper-Plate Photogravure,' Curated by Leandro Villaro, Penumbra Exhibition Space Gallery, Nov 30, 2022 - March 15, 2023. ABOUT THE IMAGE Cerro Paine Grande is the highest summit of the Cordillera Paine Mountain Range located within Chile's Torres del Paine National Park, one of the most breathtaking national parks in the world and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1978. The Torres del Paine or Towers of Paine are three massive granite pillars...

Born in Charleroi, Belgium, Christine Ravaux is an artist who mirrors her surroundings in the mezzotints she creates. She has portrayed the black hills that dot the landscape of the ...

20th Century School, Mountain Landscape, Black and White Photograph, unsigned, ebonized wood frame. Image: 19.25" H x 15.25" W; frame: 28.5" H x 24.5" W. Provenance: From a New York ...