CHICAGO, IL.- Artist Carrie Gundersdorf explores abstraction through the use of astronomical imagery. Her six large-scale featured drawings consist of bars of color against atmospheric backdrops. They express not only what is seen, but also what can be imagined through color, line, space, and form, and are on view at the next UBS 12 x 12 New Artists/New Work at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago. The exhibition opened Friday, August 6 and runs through August 29, 2010.

Gundersdorf's abstract compositions reveal light spectrums and articulate the movements of stars and planets through space. The marks and imperfections of the drawings lend a human quality to a subject matter that is largely rooted in meticulous scientific documentation. As a result, her work is intended to distill and construct illusionistic space rather than create a direct reference to the original source photographs, creating an element of artistic discovery. Gundersdorf says, "My drawings and paintings refer to astronomical images that are created by time-lapse photography, spectroscopes, and computer-enhanced photographs. I find these images in books and on the internet, and extract shapes, lines, colors, and patterns that serve as a starting point for compositional strategies."

Gundersdorf received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute in 1998. She leads a gallery talk about her exhibition on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, at 6 pm.