Nancy Koenigsberg
"As I move ahead with my work, I also reflect on my inspirations and beginnings. I've lived most of my life in an urban environment and find that the grid of New York City's streets and the regularity and repetitiveness of the building facades has become part of my DNA. For those willing to look closely, the city also offers an endless array of distinguishing detail. Changing light is filtered through narrow shafts between buildings and through the leaves and branches of trees insistent enough to thrive here. Taxies, buses, crowds, and solo walkers, all contribute to the constant animation of the city.
The grid and a variety of detail were also an important part of my early work with fiber, a first love that continues to engage me though I've moved from yarns and fabric to industrial materials.
I now use copper and steel narrow gauge wire and traditional forms of weaving and knotting to create two and three-dimensional structures and textiles. Even as I create my drawings in metal, I'm fascinated with the interlocking lines and the spaces they form.
Lace-like layers allow for transparency, the passage of light and the formation of shadows. In other works, multiple layers become almost opaque. Lines cross and re-cross to create a complex fabric and a lively tangle of light and shadow. Works become a study in paradox offering an appearance of delicacy and fragility juxtaposed with the strengths of the steel and copper employed in their making."