Pharmakon, 2007

Successive Approximations Works by Carol Prusa
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Carol Prusa’s paintings are inspired by her on-going fascination with biology, alchemy, physics and botany. Highly finished elliptical and round birch panels serve as the supports for an expansive arena where the artist depicts images that resemble ambiguous microscopic cellular structures, flora and fungi, and cosmological symbols.

Prusa’s meticulously rendered drawings are created in silverpoint, a medium employed by Renaissance masters Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer.

Instead of using graphite pencil the works are drawn with silver wire. The artist incorporates other materials into the compositions such as powdered sulfur, titanium white, graphite washes, and acrylic media. The exhibition features an installation of various-sized circular disks that are arranged on the gallery walls in a non-linear configuration. Also on display are several celestial domes that incorporate fiber optics and digital technologies that evoke the ethereal.

Prusa earned a BS in Medical Illustration from University of Illinois and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from Drake University. She is an Associate Professor of Painting at Florida Atlantic University.