Kate Petley

Fringe Element: A Drawing Installation In Residence: March 3 - March 28, 2008 Opening Reception: March 28, 5:30 - 8:30pm Exhibition: continues through April 18, 2008In this site-specific installation, Creative Resident Kate Petley incorporates plastic materials to transform space using depth and reflection. Transparency creates and guides two ambitious installations at opposite ends of PlatteForum's exhibition area. At one end, Petley's Fringe Element: A Drawing Installation shimmers within its architecturally defined parameters, marking her first installation in Denver. Sky Tent, created by girls working with Kate in Learning Labs, grows from the wall and window at the opposite end of the gallery.In Fringe Element: A Drawing Installation, a suspended structural grid system supports strips of clear plastic material that has been cut into delicate fringe, like a hula skirt or tinsel. The plastic material has been drawn and painted upon, with a concentration of marks and imagery clustered in the center to exaggerate the hovering effect of the piece. Reflections, texture, and mark-making blend together to create an installation that blurs the boundaries of sculpture and drawing. Hung in careful rows, the dense strips of fringed plastic create an illusion of space as if a hologram existed in the center. This installation, placed at eye level and in proportion to the viewer, will fill the space with an array of associative meanings. Silly and beautiful, richly yet simply developed, completion of this piece will require the entire one month residency period.Size: 119" high x 172" long x 126" deep. Materials: industrial support hardware, lumber, metal, cable, Duralar, mixed media drawing and painting materials, resin, tape, and plastic.About the ArtistKate Petley has received numerous grants, awards, and public commissions for her work, exhibiting in venues across the country. In 2008, she was awarded a public commission for the City of Houston's new landmark downtown Fire Station. Highly visible, this commission includes the Watchtower windows. Additionally, Petley is currently completing commissions for the Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City, Missouri, and for a private development in Pasadena, California. Her innovative use of materials broadly describes a personal experience of light and landscape. Petley will be featured in an upcoming solo exhibition at Plus Gallery in Denver.www.katepetley.comVolunteers: Mark Purvis, Henry Hernandez, Margaret Costello, Mindy Bray, Brandi Wilkinson, Meredith Smith, Gretchen Calhoun, Susan Vaho, Jamie Vazquez, Rebecah Ziegler, Kate Kaplan, Steve Chucovich, Wendi Harford. Special thanks to Tamara Hebbert, Production Services International.