Art Gym Denver is excited to announce Wax Paper – Mixed Media and Encaustic Art by member-artists Judith Bergquist and Gigia Kolouch. Their works, which both embrace nature through distinctly different techniques, will be featured in the Common Space Gallery with an opening reception April 19 from 5-8 p.m.

A Colorado native with a background in technical theatre and landscape architecture, Bergquist shows the intricacy of how paper can be manipulated by bringing color, texture, and value upon each other to create images known to the human eye. Forms of animals and abstracted landscapes emerge through the layers of paper in her mixed media paintings.

Kolouch’s masterful understanding of plants and her experience teaching others to grow and cook food feeds her desire to share “the mystery and beauty of the natural world” through her art. “I take images from the past and transform them using the skills and materials available to me in the present,” Kolouch says. “I enjoy the puzzle of making a piece work within these limitations.”