Constance DeJong Metal

This retrospective account of Constance DeJong's artistic career begins with the Steel Drawings of 1978 and ends with the Four/Three series of 2002. During this period of stylistic and theoretical change in the art world, DeJong's is a story of invention within consistency, as each new series grows out of the preceding one in unexpected ways. DeJong is sensitive to metal, which she employs not as a tool but for its own sake. She is a poet of steel and copper, of stain and patina, plying the boundary between sculpture and painting. She brings out the denseness of metal but also dissolves its heft. Her compositions are at once hard-edged and mysterious; her Light Drawings use empty space to do the work of metal sheets. She works with line to wed the illusory character of painting to the substance of metal. This rich collection of photos captures the essence of DeJong's work. Complimented with descriptive text by Arden Reed, and an interview of the artist conducted by Gus Blaisdell, Constance Dejong metal vividly documents the evolution of DeJong's art. Constance DeJong teaches in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico.