JANET SHAPERO

References to the natural world – landscapes, microscopic views, underwater environments... and to man-made elements – walls, doorways, sacred texts, scrolls… are imbedded in the work. As organic expanses counterbalance crisp edges of containment in a collage-like juxtaposition of color and pattern, the Rete-chromes serve as a means of merging different realities, synthesizing experience and creating wholeness. Screen functions as both the physical and the metaphoric underpinning of the work, with reference to the filtering process of memory and the structuring process of reason. The open-weave backing allows for the modulation of light throughout the surface as well as for complex cast shadows, resulting in a rich interplay between the Rete-Chromes and their environment.

Originally from Massachusetts, multi-media artist, Janet Shapero, lived in Italy, Wisconsin and Utah for many years, before returning to her Boston roots.  With a BFA in Sculpture from RISD and an MFA in Printmaking and Sculpture from UW – Madison, she was tenured as Head of the Sculpture at USU. Since moving east she has taught at Maine College of Art, Mass College of Art and Wellesley College.  For many years she has been a Visiting Professor in the Doctorate Program at the University of Barcelona. 

For the past eighteen years, Janet has been applying thin layers of pigment, both directly and indirectly to open-weave backings in order to create images of varying translucencies, held afloat in a diaphanous grid.  Rete-Chrome (pronounced rět-ě-krōm - derived from rete, Latin for net; and chrome, Greek for color) is the term she has given to the process and the resulting artwork.  

 

 

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