Untitled (Web 4)

Vija Celmins creates subtle, often delicate, monochromatic paintings, drawings and prints based largely on her own photographs of the desert, sea, night sky, and other natural phenomena. Using graphite, erasers, electric erasers and charcoal dust among other tools and materials, Celmins investigates the nature of physical and metaphorical presence, as well as the spatial implications of drawing. There is a sense of quietude and wonder in much of the work, and a notable banishing of any direct human presence. Her serial explorations of a single subject include the Mojave Desert in the U.S., a place she has often photographed, and a spider’s web.