Cheryl Humphreys’ undulating colors and elliptical topographies deliver a sensory experience. Invoking subtle, highly considered strategies, the artist seeks to generate physical calm in viewers of the work. As with The Bauhaus’ geometric colorists, Rothko’s liminal spiritualism, or the 1970s architect of light, James Turrell, Humphreys identifies perception itself as material.
Printmaking is usually highly methodical and ritualistic, and it is absolutely so in Humphreys’ hands. Through repetition, the human body and mind drop into a more relaxed state; Humphreys builds this into her works like so much respite. Repetition also emphasizes the inextricable interrelatedness of color, texture, shape and scale. As the artist’s compositions shift in hue or size, the forms and textures within them shift too, not unlike the ocean does, naturally, upon entering a cove. Like her aesthetic forbear, Josef Albers, Humphreys’ artwork is influenced by her design work. This interweaving of traditions generates synesthesia-like experience in viewers, whose minds and bodies are uniquely and simultaneously engaged.
Cheryl Humphreys (b. 1986, Ithaca, NY) received her BFA from Otis College of Art & Design in 2008. She has attended residencies at Pocoapoco (Oaxaca, Mexico), Aviário Studio (Ferreira do Zêzere, Portugal), Otra Vox (Los Angeles, CA) and has had solo exhibitions at Sarah Brook Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Paul Loya Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Group exhibitions include the Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Chandler Gallery, Mill Valley, CA; Lobster Club, Los Angeles, CA; Ace Hotel, Brooklyn, NY; Tappan Collective, Los Angeles, CA and other spaces locally and internationally. Humphreys currently lives and works outside of Baltimore, MD.