'IRINA' / 26 X 40 in. / Concentrated crayon & colored pencil on paper.

																																						
						   PRESS RELEASE

						     Line Literacy
						  Ai-Wen Wu Kratz

During the month of September, 2011, Ai-Wen Wu Kratz's large scale  
works on paper are on view in a 73 linear
foot space at Georgetown University Hospital on the first floor of its  
main building .  Kratz distinguishes herself in
a proficiency to create purity of forms with lines.  On the difficulty  
of line literacy, David Hockney wrote:

	     "I prefer there to be no noise at all so I can concentrate  
more.  You can't make a line too slowly,
                    you have to go at a certain speed; so the  
concentration needed is quite strong.  It's very tiring as well.
                    If you make two or three line drawings, it's very  
tiring in the head, because you have to do it all at one
                    go, something you've no need to do with pencil  
drawing; that doesn't have to be done in one go; you
                    can stop, you can rub out.  With line drawings,  
you don't want to do that.  You can’t rub out line,
                    mustn’t do it.   It’s exciting doing it, and I  
think it’s harder than anything else; so when they succeed,
                    they are much better drawings, often."  (Source:  
"Pictures By David Hockney." p. 64.)

In Kratz's words: "I feel the link between my senses and the execution  
is direct and immediate to the highest
degree, so to bring forth the breath of life."  Her further ambition  
is to combine abstraction and representation
into one.  From Kratz's point of view, it is neither difficult nor  
conflicting to embrace abstract and figurative works
at the same time.  "2 x 2 = 0" or "5 + 24 = 1" are seemingly absurd,  
but not in the context of modular arithmetic.
Similarly, in the visual world, all things are, by virtue of light,  
but forms and colors, let alone abstraction or
representation.

Kratz received her BFA degree in Painting and Mathematics from Fort  
Wright College, Spokane, WA;  her MFA
degree in Painting and Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art,  
Bloomfield Hills, MI.  She is an alumna of
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME.  In 2008,  
she participated in the Drawing Marathon
at New York Studio School, New York, NY.  In 2010, she received a  
diploma "Breaking Into Print" in creative writing
from Long Ridge Writer's Group, West Redding, CT.  In addition to the  
U.S., she had solo exhibitions in France,
Germany, England and Egypt.  Her works are in collections in Canada,  
Germany, China and the U.S., including the
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.  She is among the  
featured artists in the 2007 edition of
"100 Contemporary International Artists" published by the European  
Communities Artists Library, Barcelona, Spain.


Scheduled solo exhibitions:  October 8 to November 9,  2011, "Color  
Logic", Applegate Gallery and Framing, Vienna, VA.
                                                      October 2012,  
Touchstone Gallery, Washington, D.C.
                                                      October 2013,  
Gallery M, Euro-Asian Art Center, Vienna, Austria.

Gallery representation: Touchstone Gallery, Washington, D.C.
                                            Arlington Artists Gallery,  
Arlington Artists Alliance, Arlington, VA.
                                            Applegate Gallery and  
Framing, Vienna, VA.

Link:  http://arttistsspeak.blogspot.com/
            Bora Mici's blog with artist interviews.
   	   *** Under "Labels" / Ai-Wen Wu Kratz / 09-16-2010

Website /Kratz:  http://www.aiwenwukratzartstudio.com
Website /Touchstone Gallery:  http://www.touchstonegallery.com
Contact: kratz@aiwenwukratzartstudio.com