ATLANTA.- The High Museum of Art has reinstalled “Retracings” in the atrium windows of the Museum. “Retracings,” by Atlanta-based artist Deanna Sirlin, comprises monumentally scaled images of an abstract painting that, when installed in the multi-paned windows, produce the effect of stained glass. The installation will be on view from April 2 through June 20, 2005.

“There is much anticipation at the Museum and in Atlanta for the return of ‘Retracings,’” said Philip Verre, Deputy Director of the High Museum of Art. “Deanna’s innovative use of the Museum’s atrium windows was a triumph for mixed media art and technique, which has led to her continued success as an artist.”

“Retracings” is the result of the High’s first competition for artists in 1999, which challenged artists to design works for untraditional exhibition spaces in the Museum. Once chosen, “Retracings” remained on view for six months through January 2000, and was then acquired by the High for its permanent collection. Technology innovations were necessary for the making of “Retracings.” Sirlin’s original oil paintings were digitally scanned and enlarged by a factor of thirty, which required the development of new software. Sirlin collaborated on the process with Colorchrome, an Atlanta-based imaging firm with whom she continues to work.

“Retracings,” straddles the border between painting and installation, as well as the border between painting and new media. Sirlin has since created works using the same combination of painting and technology for the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Triennial exhibition; the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Ga.; and Ca’ Foscari, the University of Venice, Italy, where “Punto di Fuga” (“Vanishing Point”) is installed permanently. She continues to work with this technology, with the objective of creating works that capitalize on the transparency of the image without being dependent on a window. A large, freestanding work was installed in the One Live Oak building on Lenox Road in Atlanta in 2005. Deanna Sirlin Deanna Sirlin was born in 1958, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and currently resides in Atlanta. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Queens College, City University of New York in 1980, and her Bachelor of Art sdegree from State University of New York at Albany in 1978. Sirlin is represented by Luxe Gallery in New York City. Her work is in the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; Universita Ca’ Foscari Venice, Italy; Kunsthaus Nuremberg, Germany; and the Shenzhen Institute of Fine Arts, People’s Republic of China. The awards she has received for her work include a Visiting Artist Fellowship to Nuremberg, Germany, and a 1997 award for Women in the Visual Arts from the State of Georgia. Sirlin maintains her studio on a horse farm in Alpharetta, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. More information about Deanna Sirlin and her work can be found at
www.deannasirlin.com.