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In her collages and paintings Kovacs takes satellite imagery of Bay Area freeways and manipulates it digitally into reflective patterns: thin, looping strands that re-create the “spaghetti” effect seen in aerial photos of freeway systems. She mounts the prints on wood and sets them in glossy resin to create geometric forms that look as much like heraldic symbols as they do highways, echoing the form, content and romantic aspirations of early 20th century painters like Joseph Stella and Charles Sheeler, artists whose depictions of bridges now stand as symbols of the modernist impulse. She also embeds photos into large-scale paintings in which the photos slice lyrically through black acrylic paint, a visual reference to oil made palpable by thick brushstrokes. Baroque, Lotus and Upward Suspension are elegant examples whose interlocking strands symbolize urbanity and human connectivity. Kovacs’ newer three-dimensional works, while lacking the hand-made tactility of her paintings and photo collages, compensate in other ways. Travel Soundscape — a wall-mounted piano sound board that can be hammered with mallets while a soundscape of traffic noise plays on a loop from hidden speakers — is an engaging homage to John Cage and to just about every other composer or performer who's allowed chance, randomness and noise to seep into music.
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