Opening Reception for "Jocelyn Chateauvert: Plant, Fiber, Paper, Object"

“Jocelyn Chateauvert: Plant, Fiber, Paper, Object” features work comprised of a diversity of shapes and colors. Botanical tabletop sculptural pieces seem to grow from the surface on which they are displayed. Sculptural lamps are lit from within, making their organic forms a definite but quiet presence. Her most recent works include hanging gardens made of paper flora arranged in paper vessels.

Born, raised and educated in Iowa, Jocelyn received both her BA and her MFA from the University of Iowa. She then moved to London to teach metalworking at Middlesex Polytechnic. Following her time in London, she went on to establish herself as a professional artist in San Francisco. Since 1999 she has lived in Charleston, South Carolina, devoting herself primarily to paper art. In 2014 she was commissioned by the South Carolina State Museum to create a piece to hang outside the new museum planetarium. The large colorful permanent installation mobile entitled “The Space in Between” hangs from the vaulted ceiling, spinning and floating in space, deriving life from the moving air.

Chateauvert makes paper near the ocean, just minutes from her studio. The movement of her hands mimicks the waves of the sea, drawing the mould through the vat gathering the pulp. Water and fiber settle, the mould is rolled and pressed between two woolen blankets into sheets, pressing out water and “mingling its cells”. Working with the paper while it is still damp, her fingers work to imprint, crease, fold and pinch into form. The paper responds then shrinks, “taking its final form from the air itself.”

In 2004, she was the recipient of a South Carolina Arts Commission Craft Fellowship. The Arts Commission is currently mounting a 50^th anniversary celebration exhibition to be presented in various venues throughout the state this year and next, and will include Chateauvert. Her work is also part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, as well as the Mint Museum of Art and Craft in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. It is also in numerous private and corporate collections.