“Key Mangroves #5”, Cynthia Back (US) sold

Cynthia Back’s classic woodcuts centre around the theme of nature. She creates an experience where the viewer may feel that they are walking through a landscape. Her focus on nature reflects her deep passion and admiration for it. With her pieces, through slight abstraction and design, she pictures wildlife in its different auras, through seasons and changes in weather. With this exploration, she touches upon important subjects; such as human’s impact on nature and climate change.

Printmaking enables Back to contrast shapes and colors through various processes. In each of her prints, she uses “10 to 25 colors, in opaque and transparent form”, leading the print to acquire “a physicality of layers” (Back, 2019). When printing, she only uses one single print block. This means she carves only one block, carving over images that have already been printed, and uses it for many layers and colors. This is called a reduction print. This results in the interesting color layering observed in the works.