“Transection” 2023, Oil on canvas, 36x24 in

Today on the podcast I interviewed Ilana Zweschi! Join us in a chat about color systems, story telling in abstraction, how she organizes her time, best practices for students, and much more!

Ilana Zweschi https://www.instagram.com/ilanazweschi/

Website: http://www.ilanazweschi.com/

ARTIST STATEMENT

“I target destructive texts—official or influential words that have harmful repercussions on a mass scale. Then I disempower the messages in these texts by transforming them into paintings through handwritten algorithms.

I take the numbers, letters, and punctuation that comprise these texts and alphabetically reorder them. The result is total nonsense. All of the same elements are there, but they no longer have the power to do harm. They have been disarmed. Like taking a gun and switching around its parts so the mechanism can no longer fire.

Finally, I use both forms of the text to write an algorithm that that drives the decisions of each brush stroke of paint. I input the raw data of the text into the algorithm, run it through a series of “if/then” rules I assign based on the structure and grammar of the written words, and receive an output of painterly actions. Each letter of the text corresponds to one discrete brush stroke, creating a larger idea from the individual elements. The painting could not exist without either the original or altered text.

Alternately, in my drawings I am seeking an antidote to this poisonous psychology. I engage in acts of repetition that facilitate an accumulation of similar but inevitably unique marks while concentrating on compassion. These actions are meant to highlight the concept of the individual while showing the strength that many individuals have together.“

BIO:

Ilana Zweschi is an artist working in Seattle, Washington. She attended Skidmore College, graduating summa cum laude in 2011, where she was an Art Major and a Mathematics Minor. In 2014 she earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the State University of New York at Albany and received the Departmental Thesis award for her oral defense. She is currently represented by Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle and is an instructor at Cornish College of the Arts. Zweschi has exhibited expansively, recently completing a large scale commission for the Facebook Open Arts Program, is part of the Microsoft art collection, and received the DASH artist grant for 2022. Notable group shows include: Tiger Strikes Asteroid in New York, Museum of Museums in Seattle, and Out of Sight: A Survey of Contemporary Art in the Pacific Northwest. Her work has been published in the No. 145 Pacific Coast Issue of New American Paintings, a Youngspace interview, and featured on the opening page of the Culture section of the Seattle Met in 2020.

The Tower: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoSQkVOJlaN/

Host and artist Stephanie Scott breaks down the practicality of the art career with topics including: sustainable creative practices, social media skills, and the mindsets that keep it all together. New episodes every Tuesday!

Sign up for the next Group Art Critique: https://www.stephaniescott.art/group-art-critiques

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniescott.art/

Website: http://www.stephaniescott.art/brushwork

Music by @winepot https://www.instagram.com/thewinepot/

Podcast Cover photo by Maryna Blumqvist https://instagram.com/picturemaryna

Since recording this podcast a week ago, Linda Hodges Gallery has announced it’s closure. Make sure to follow Ilana on Instagram to see where her work will be shown next!

July 2023 Update: She’s now represented by Foster/White Gallery

Systems & Abstraction with Ilana Zweschi