Thomas Lax

Thomas Lax consistently examines in prints and drawings the forms and processes of nature with the close eye of a microscope, charting weather systems, mapping the human body, establishing connections between humans and science or machinery. Having been educated and begun his career in the former Czechoslovakia, Lax was instructed to approach printmaking traditionally, which changed when he continued his studies at York University in Toronto (1971 to 1976). Lax began to play with the processes of intaglio, pressing his own hand into ground and etching the imprint instead of using printmaking tools, gradually increasing his scale as well to accommodate his experimentation. His Fingerprints series (1972) was made of marks left by his fingers on the plates. In Running Men (1973), he created what appeared to be moving figures by making impressions with the heel of his hand. He has also ripped and sewn paper, as in Dry (1976), a technique that Bente Roed Cochran explained "partly takes the preciousness out of an artwork, and partly refers to the convention of cancelling a plate by defacing it" (1989). He also frequently adds collage elements to his prints and drawings, and numbers, symbols, and text to his work. Gallery One described the effect in 1977 when Lax took part in a group show there: "Lax uses different techniques of printmaking (etching, lithography, and drypoint) to achieve a varied textural sensitivity. His etching produces sharp, refined, speedy lines, which contrast and overlap the strong, robust and slow flowing lines of lithography. Combined with the forceful lines of drypoint, which accent the composition with more emphatic effect, the etching and lithography lend visual plasticity to the prints." This kind of effect takes place in Autumn Fall Out (1985), a dizzying background of lines with scattered leaves drifting across its surface, and Sand, Stones, Sun and Rain (1989), in which a consistently orange background is treated differently in several areas, sometimes etched with tiny lines, in other areas marked with big streaks of white, tiny black dots speckling part of the image. In the 1990s he continued this exploration of nature's forms and patterns in the Water series. Discussing the use of abstract and geometric forms in his work, Lax said: "geometrical circuits and wheels and gears are usually broken up into small patterns, surrounded by arrows, numbers, lines, or by other recognizable objects. These graphic elements are only touchstones for probing into associated visual imagery, an imagery intended to reflect deeper personal sensitivity and experience" (1985). Lax began his teaching career at the University of Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, and has continued to teach in Canada at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Fanshaw College in London, Ontario, and the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Alberta. He was awarded the Jury Prize at the Alberta Artists Association Exhibition in 1979, the Jury Selection Award for the Edition I Ontario Arts Council Printmaking Competition and Exhibition in Toronto, Ontario in 1974, and the Jury Selection Award for Printed Matter, the Printmaking Competition and Exhibition at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, that same year. He has been a visiting artist at numerous institutions in Canada and the Czech Republic, and is a member of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in Washington, DC, and the Canada-Czech Republic Chamber of Commerce in Toronto.

 http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/lax.html