July 2024
Artist-in-ATHICA: Benjamin Rouse
- Open Studio Hours and Paper-Making Tutorials: Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00-7:00 PM (Advance registration requested for tutorials via email. Also available by appointment)
- Closing Event: Search for Symmetry Exhibition | Saturday, July 27, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM
ATHICA is delighted to announce that the artist Ben Rouse will be in residence during the month of July 2024. Although Rouse is well-known for his photographic work, during his residency he will focus on completing a recent body of work, “Search for Symmetry” that ventures into the paper craftsmanship of 3-D printmaking. He makes his own paper and embosses it through a process of affixing thousands of small metal spheres to a thin wooden surface, creating a custom plate. The pieces that result have been monochromatic, meditative, and delicate in their nuanced surfaces. The residency will provide the opportunity to follow his process towards evolution and completion.
All are welcome to come into the gallery and see what he is up to during his regular open studio hours 12:00 to 7:00 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment through email. Rouse will also offer simple paper-making tutorials upon request via email or during open studio hours, advance registration via email.
He will end the residency with a closing exhibition on Saturday, July 27, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, titled “Search for Symmetry.”
The artist states that “I’m grateful for the chance to interact with my local community and share my embossing techniques as well. Often when I try to explain the process to others, I feel a lot gets lost in translation. It’s always best when I can simply demonstrate the process in person and I now have the opportunity to do that in an accessible way.”
The purpose of the Artist-in-ATHICA invitation-only residency program is to foster the development of artists and their artistic works and to enrich the programmatic offerings and community experience provided by ATHICA. For more information about the ATHICA artist-in residence program and to learn about previous residents, see: the Artist-in-ATHICA Residency Program.
More About Ben Rouse
Benjamin Rouse is a visual artist known for his works exploring entropy, pressure, and personal acceptance. Inspired by the recurring cycles of life and nature, Rouse creates dreamlike photographs through analog techniques and experiments in blind embossing.
Although they appear dissimilar on the surface, in many ways they are the same. A photograph captures a moment with light, whereas embossing captures a moment with pressure. His work articulates emotions that are universally shared but often difficult to verbalize.
Rouse, a self-taught artist, currently works from his home studio in Athens Georgia.
Website: www.rouseartwork.com
IG: @rouseartwork
CV: Rouse CV-2024
Request appointment or paper-making tutorial: rouseartwork@gmail.com
Artists-in-ATHICA is sponsored in part by The James E. and Betty J. Huffer Foundation and the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts.
Press Release: https://mailchi.mp/athica/rouse
Press: https://flagpole.com/calendar-picks/2024/07/24/calendar-pick-benjamin-rouse-closing-reception/