"Presences" the title of Joan Giordano's recent show perfectly describes her sentinel-like flat panels of charred paper. Hung as vertical planes, the works read almost like abstract scrolls.  Giordano's working process, which she developed during a residency at YADDO encompasses many actions-burning, stitching, cutting, and welding, to name just a few. Her substantial interactions with materials yield a highly textured, expressionistic surface that acts in contrast to the overall geometry, or gestalt, of the piece itself. At the same time, despite the heavily physical treatment, these forms exist to acknowledge the presence of the spirit the "manifestation of dematerialized objects that continue to reverberate in our lives- an echo of the invisible world."

      --Jonathan Goodman