Photo by James Dickerson @dirtykics

 

About

Artist Statement
My current work, Land Rites, is a meditation on the fleeting nature of rural landscapes and the callous tendency to denote human boundaries in natural spaces where there were none before. Land Rites utilizes imagery culled from hours of quiet investigation of both lush and decimated landscapes primarily through the medium of printmaking.

My artistic research involves a hybridization of on-site observational drawings and photographs of landscapes, with a particular interest in the documentation of both naturally occurring and man-made liminal spaces and how we as human beings politicize boundaries and seek to restrain and control the environment we are a part of. Naturally occurring liminal spaces often feature multiple transitions within one complex system, with changes both subtle and abrupt. Man-made liminal spaces occurring simultaneously with nature (concrete slabs, clear cutting of forests, construction and barrier fences) are abrupt and denote moments of unchecked progress. Through documentation of singular spaces through multiple moments of human incursion, my work demonstrates the inherent tension found in how people exist in and to move over top of nature. Many works include inks, fiber materials for handmade paper and other elements culled directly from the spaces documented in the work.


Biography
Ian J. Welch is a artist, educator and printmaker living in Hampton, South Carolina. Welch received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Northern Illinois University with a focus in Printmaking in 2016, his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bowling Green State University in 2011, as well as receiving his Associate of Arts degree from Owens Community College in 2008.

Welch has had work featured in multiple exhibitions throughout the US including The International Print Center of New York, Print Austin and Artfields SC, along with curating multiple exhibitions throughout Northwest Ohio. 

Welch is currently the Visual Art teacher at Hampton Elementary School and Fennell Elementary School in Hampton County, SC, having previously worked as Assistant Professor of Art and Curator II of the FAB Gallery at South Carolina State University. Welch is the owner/printer at Pegboard Press printmaking studio in Hampton, SC and serves on the Advisory Board for the Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage in Ridgeland, SC. Welch was previously an adjunct instructor at Bowling Green State University and Owens Community College, as well as the Gallery Manager/Curator at Gathered Glassblowing Studio.