Under The Cold Moon: Erica Podwoiski

Opening Reception: 18 January, 5 – 8 PM

Exhibition Dates: 6 December, 2024 – 6 January, 2025

Location: Dairy Arts Center Lobby, 2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302

Erica Podwoiski’s Under the Cold Moon is a poetic exploration of the shifting seasons along Colorado’s Front Range, where life both endures and transforms in the quiet beauty of winter. Using cyanotype—one of the earliest forms of camera-less photography—Podwoiski collaborates with the sun to create delicate “sun prints” that blend traditional drawing techniques with foraged natural materials from Boulder County. Her work captures fleeting moments of stillness, offering viewers a contemplative pause in the rhythm of daily life.

The installation showcases plants, animals, and insects that endure year-round or retreat during Colorado’s coldest months. Podwoiski layers charcoal and graphite renderings of local wildlife on mylar with foraged materials like snakeskins, feathers, and dried leaves, creating dynamic compositions where drawn and natural elements intertwine. Each cyanotype becomes a fossil-like record of fleeting existence. Attuned to seasonal rhythms, Podwoiski’s process reflects nature’s challenges. Winter’s shorter days, colder temperatures, and dimmed UV light extend the time required for each cyanotype, highlighting the resilience shared by both the artist and the environment.

Throughout the exhibition, specters of past, present, and future seasons converge, inviting quiet introspection. The work celebrates the fortitude of the winter solstice, the peace of long nights, and the promise of renewal. By walking familiar paths, observing an orb weaver’s web as it disappears, or returning to the same willow tree through the seasons, Podwoiski forges a profound connection to the natural world. Under the Cold Moon reminds us of the beauty in stillness and the quiet resilience of life that endures, even in the harshest moments.

Poster artwork: Collaboration between Erica Podwoiski and Kelsey Jean Clark

About the artist:

Erica Podwoiski is a visual artist whose work explores intimate encounters with the natural world. Born and raised in Metro Detroit, Erica received her BFA from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 2010 and her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2017. She has exhibited at the Gallery of Contemporary Art (GOCA) in Colorado Springs, inside the Denver-based pop-up art truck Hey Hue, at the Galerie in Körnerpark in Berlin, and with the artist-founded Buckham Gallery in Flint, MI. In 2024, she served as the Summer Artist in Residence at the Firehouse Art Center in Longmont, CO. When not teaching adult classes in the 2D arts, Erica can be found pressing flowers, appreciating moths, and collecting dead bugs for inspiration.