Field Trip to t.w.five Studio in Palo Alto

Thanks to Nathalie Verma (one of SJMA's gallery docents) for including our LLAA docents in their field trip this summer to visit the studio of Paula Perreira and Pernilla Andersson. She wrote the following in the Docent Council Newsletter:

On Sunday, July 21, the docents had a great studio visit to the studio of Pernilla Andersson and Paula Perreira, the artist duo behind t.w.five. I met Paula and Pernilla during POW WOW 2018 and was not only instantly drawn to their work but also to their so complementing personalities and the harmony with which they work.

They met 10 years ago and did not really like to work with other people. Paula, a Brazilian photographer was a solo act using the name T.W. and Pernilla, a Swedish painter went by the name of Five.

They both studied at SJSU and met during a show in New York where they were together working or their own projects but during the course of the exhibit they discovered they had many things in common, and they saw a possibility to do something together.

Paula came up with the big idea to create pieces of art using only colorful vinyl tape. She had used this material once for an art project, and thought it was very sexy and glossy. So, they gave it a try.

Now, known together as t.w.five, the pair of women have made works in vinyl tape something of a signature—their pieces have shown in a number of local and international galleries, including San Francisco's Luna Rienne and the Luggage Store, the ICA, POW WOW Art show, and Kala Art Institute as well as a few art spaces in Norway. In 2015, t.w.five enjoyed a much sought-after residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito.

Each t.w.five project begins with a conversation among the two friends. If they like an idea, they start looking for pictures and do some research. Then they put everything into their work. The two women usually work on a panel at the same time, often starting at opposite corners and working their way in. Sometimes they step back, look at the picture, and switch positions The artists hand-cut the vinyl tape into strips of various sizes and then painstakingly apply them to found images that they project onto an all-white panel. Absolutely nothing is drawn or painted; every image is made with only adhesive tape.

They are currently working on a large commission for the new Cancer Center at UCSF and the six large wall pieces are due in the beginning of August, so it was a very special treat to see them before the public sees them.

Click here to go to their website. Please check out their work.