‘As a printmaker, Czerniak-LeBov is committed to sustaining the qualities of a well-made print and argues that it is possible to be respectful of process and see printmaking as a medium for experimentation, conceptual exploration and spontaneity… The artist uses technology to ‘walk’ through familiar city streets, the distorted viewpoint, the differing perspectives and disassociation from physical experience allows the viewer to see, and question, a fractured familiar’. Dr. Angela Griffith

Viewable online here.

Ria Czerniak-LeBov’s work is an exploration of spatial memory, the urban landscape and how the ubiquity of technology has changed our relationships with both. Despite working in the medium of copperplate etching, much of her work is contingent on the digital world for its source material, drawn from images found in google street view,  panoramic applications on mobile devices and other technologies through which we now experience so much of the world around us.

These appropriated images, riddled with glitches and impossible angles call into question the subjectivity of memory.  Etched upon her plates, printed and hung in the physical world are virtual spaces we can never visit. These places exist between digital permanence and ephemera. Skewed and fractured, much like memory itself, they highlight the inherent inconsistencies we are faced with when attempting to preserve and document the spaces we occupy. Every time our memories are revisited they are altered, further from the original experience.  By using collage, repetition and distortion Ria aims to present the viewer with uncanny renderings of what may at first glance appear to be familiar spaces. Stripped of all inhabitants, perspective and markers of time or location she invites the viewer to step into these scenes, to explore the streets anew.

Ria Czerniak-LeBov is an artist and musician from Dublin. She was the recipient of the  Graphic Studio Dublin Graduate Award in 2016, where she is now a full-time member,  predominantly working in etching and aquatint. Czerniak-LeBov’s prints have been shown at the RHA, RUA, The National Botanic Gardens, St. Patrick’s Hospital, The Hyde  Bridge Gallery, GMIT and NUI Maynooth among others. Ria’s work is part of several permanent collections including the OPW, Mason Hayes and Curran and Trinity College Dublin.