October 2019
Helicase: New Work by Karen Gelardi
Rockland, Maine

Interloc is proud to present HELICASE, a solo exhibition of new work by artist Karen Gelardi.

Gelardi, who lives and works in South Portland, Maine, has focused on resiliency; using handmade and industrial production techniques, she creates systems of pattern, modularity, assembly / disassembly, and embraces the variation and mutations that arise in her process.

Of this body of work, the artist writes:
The scientific term helicase is the closest I can find to the creative impulses I follow in my work—to unzip, reproduce, transform and grow imagery into something that has a palpable life force.

Just as helicases are enzymes that unzip base pairs in DNA to make a copy of a part, my work begins with observational drawings that are deconstructed to become templates and components for subsequent works. I modify base materials into something new while retaining their original impulsive character.


Subsequent drawings, paintings, patterns, prints, collages, sculptures, and dioramas are made with a mix of fine art, craft, and industrial production techniques from ink on paper, to textiles, plywood, photocopies, and dye sublimation printing. 


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The hope is that the work models a generative and resilient system. In HELICASE I am showing new work and honoring several years of visual research and exploration.

Interloc (formerly Steel House Projects and Interloc Projects), now located in Thomaston, Maine, is a multidisciplinary art space providing access to contemporary artists, thinkers and technologists through exhibitions, workshops, talks, events and more. Co-directors Alexis Iammarino and Maeve O’Regan are pleased to be working together to curate and build the programming for Interloc.