Rochelle Toner Sessile

  
This is a beautiful etching that changes and morphs over time with the changing of light and repeated viewings. Best known as a printmaker, Toner is interested in the unconscious and the tensions created by forces that individuals have little control over. She refers to these social, sexual, and gender dynamics as "nature, pleasure, and innuendo, " and explores these tensions through abstract forms, patterns, textures, and colors. Her work plumbs the fertile juncture between abstraction and representation-the gray area in which a referent may be felt in the work without the intrusion of the literal. Surprisingly diverse, her works range from vibrantly colored organic abstractions that evoke microscopic life forms to glyph-like elements and linear marks that recall the 1920s Bauhaus-era work of Vasily Kandinsky. Like many artists working in the midwest during the 1970s, Toner fell under the spell of self-taught artists including Martín Ramírez and Joseph Yoakum, whose work she saw in Chicago at this time, and whose influence is evident in her recent body of work. Toner has shown in major institutions and has work in major collections including: the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; Tyler School of Art; the Michener Museum; and Woodmere Art Museum, among others.

Elsewhere she has exhibited at the Lafayette Museum of Art, LA; RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia; Ball State University, Muncie, IN; and the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Southern Graphics International Collection, Kennesaw State Univ, Kennesaw GA.

Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Linda Lee Alter Collection, Philadelphia PA. Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St Louis MO. Lafayette Museum of Art, DOG Portfolio, Lafayette LA. Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA. Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick NJ.

Corcoran Museum of Art, Print Portfolio: Saints and Sinners, Washington DC. Georgia Museum, University of Georgia, Print Portfolio: Saints and Sinners, Athens GA. University of Dallas, Irving TX.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA. Yale University, Collection of Allen Smith, New Haven CT. University of South Dakota, Vermillion SD.

Clarion University, Sanford Gallery, Clarion PA. Museo Aeronautico, Caproni de Talieo, Rome Italy. University of Maine, Orono ME. San Diego State College, San Diego CA. Anderson Fine Arts Center, Anderson IN.

Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Des Moines IA. Krannert Museum of Art, University of Illinois, Urbana IL. Waterloo Municipal Galleries, Waterloo IA. Georgia State University, Atlanta GA. Dickinson State College, Dickinson ND. Champaign Public Schools, Champaign IL. Measuregraph Company, Collection of George S.

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC. Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX. State of Iowa Art Council, Des Moines IA. Northern Illinois University, Dekalb IL.

Decatur Art Center, Decatur IL. Lafayette Art Center, Lafayette IN.

Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville IN. See more complete information visit.