Opening Reception: Saturday, April 6, 5:00–7:00 pm

Municipal Bonds is pleased to announce Invisible Forces, a duo presentation of Yvonne Mouser's sculptures and Jane Springwater's drawings and prints, on view April 6–May 25, 2024. This is the first time these two Bay Area-based artists' works will be shown together—while their practices and mediums differ, both investigate structural systems and the push-pull relationships of line, space and volume. Their exhibition comprises two- and three-dimensional abstract works where transformation of form and relationship to the built environment play with optical effects. In their approaches, conceptual and organizational, Mouser and Springwater each delve into the energetic influences and imperceptible architecture of time. 

In her new body of work, Yvonne Mouser plays with repetition of line and fragment to create structural patterns in three-dimensional assemblies. She uses simple forms that multiply and subtly shift, accumulating into objects with a sense of transformation. She contemplates gravity, both physically and emotionally, among other invisible forces of influence. Using a range of materials, she explores building processes which lend themselves to distinct forms and further possibilities of manipulation. With wood as her primary medium, she carves, stacks, joins, bends and weaves. In sand, she experiments with techniques for sculpting structures and mold making for metal casting. This process of play and discovery is layered alongside an exploration of ideas which stem from her fascinations with natural phenomena, perceptions of time, impermanence and perpetual change. 

There is a certain level of order, intention and precision in Mouser's sculptures. Pushing through her process though, she is searching for imperfection—activating her work through asymmetry and life cycles. Her structures are built as evolving systems, where the unification of the whole relies upon variation. In her scaffolding work, there is a central grid with triangulated lines that influence the form and integration of connecting structures. There is an order, yet with multiplied layers of additional volumes, the lines become chaotic. Likewise, in her cast grid series, Mouser explores generation loss where consecutive casts degrade the mold, leading to less precise and lower resolution forms. Combined they create an offset grid: individual tiles align to create a whole, yet through the decay of the casts a process of entropy is captured.

Since 2014, Jane Springwater has been working on multiple distinct series of large-scale drawings and etchings which explore the use of line in a process of repetitive mark-making. Works from three of these series are represented in this exhibition: Decelerating, In Motion, and Between the Lines. Each series reflects a different set of assumptions and rules, but all involve automatic repetition of a committed line. Her works are gestural; whether the marks are small or large in scale, each mirrors the repeated motion of her hand, arm or body. 

Driven by exacting processes, Springwater explores the relationship between visual information that is both mathematical and rational, and natural and organic. She creates rule-based systems that govern the repetition of hand-drawn marks and gestures to create works that are both highly ordered and free flowing. She investigates the potential of these systems to generate intricate patterns and unexpectedly evocative forms. From a distance, many of Springwater's compositions suggest a tonal field with subtle variation in texture and depth. Drawing closer, the marks become visible, gradually revealing greater complexity. Slowly, like an object coming into focus under a microscope, the logic of the work becomes discernible, even as the particulars of execution remain elusive.

Municipal Bonds