Distraction from Distraction: Geomantic Impressions, at Context Gallery

“Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt.” – Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, 1781

 “I hope that [the] painting has the impact of giving someone… the feeling of his [sic] own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality, and at the same time of his connection to others, who are also separate… you can only feel others if you have some sense of your own being” – Barnett Newman, on his painting Onement I, 1948

There are not many quiet places left anymore. Few spots where you want to turn “it” off—the phone, of course, but more importantly, the brain. We’re so distracted that we can’t focus while dining with family and friends, during walks or gym-time we’re listening to music or an audiobook, always making our bodies multitask: “I’m checking off two things from my list at once—getting caught up on reading and strengthening my shoulders—great!” Keeping us fully consumed in our own individuality is one way those in power keep us distracted, this is not a new offensive strategy by any means, but the iPhones and social media are the perfect tools for separating us, keeping us within our own algorithmic, ideological online “community.”

Enter Geomatic Expressions: William Martin Jean & Susan Squires, the current exhibition on view at Context. Curator Christopher Richards applies the engineering ethos to the work of Jean and Squires, both of whom employ a variety of classic, earthly materials, creating representations of conceptual and/or geographic spaces.[1] As a genre in art, geomatic works are often created with or in direct reference to maps, to space and place.

Jean’s Phases, made of Japanese rice papers, acrylic stain, and Italian gold leaf on Fabriano paper, is an ordered conglomeration of 30 circles, evoking the gilded manuscripts of early Christianity, the circle, perhaps the Wheel of Dharma (a symbol of Buddhism), but also an important icon in Hinduism throughout history. The shape, the beauty of the materials from which it is made, is, perhaps, universal.

His totemic altar of nine large-scale panels hung and leaned against the gallery wall is the show-stopping work in Geomantic Expressions. The larger-than life installation is comprised of the same precious materials—gold leaf, fine tissue paper, wonderfully ordered and all-encompassing.

The artist reminisces about his time [serving] on the altar at his Catholic Church—“the altar boy in me during long 40 hours devotions had me mentally redesigning the altar,” and in the context of place and time, Time Cycle more than succeeds at recreating it. Time Cycle is chapel-like, creating an experience unto itself, it is immersive and otherworldly, even as it is comprised of earthly materials.

The artist’s Blue Nile, of Japanese rice paper, acrylic stain, and Italian silver and gold leaf, is a stunning work, the river-blue reminiscent of the lapis lazuli and shimmering metals of Egyptian art. A sea of uniform triangles of various hues and metals creates a sense of agitated movement in this two-dimensional work. Jean’s technique moves us to the essence of the Nile.

Susan Squires’ work more directly references place, and it’s a theme that has been consistent in her work over the last several years. Her geomatic circling study/Cleveland Coast Guard Station #3, of encaustic, oil stick, and Xerox on panel, situates and obscures the place where the Guard serves as police officers of Erie. Squires employs encaustic (a wax used in painting) to blur the details of the interior space, which we view from above, as the original image provides a layout of the cubicles, meeting tables and rooms. It’s empty of humans, a space on land, for guards who spend all day on water.   

Her encaustic works are most wonderfully successful as objects of sensation in the triptych, becoming fire, water, air, as each small panel serves as a window into these elements. The air panel is a milky white, and if an artist is skilled at the medium, encaustic allows a translucence that is fuzzy, unfocused, meditative. Like Jean, her use of the circle draws us to the universal, while pulling us to the senses, sight, of course, but also a physical sensation of grounded-ness.

Where Jean uses a staple of lush materials and cross-cultural artistic methods for creating some sublime works, Squires courageously leans on encaustic in many of her works in Geomantic Expressions as her means of taking viewers to a more transcendent state of viewing, even being. Her bravery comes from the truth that the encaustic (painting with wax) method is erratic, often hardening due to climate (temperature, humidity), leaving artists exasperated over inconsistencies. Such is so with Squires’ work—in becoming fire, water, air, the work moves from utter transcendence to distraction, as with water, which still resonates, but drives home the tenuousness of this raw, wax substance. Squires’ works are not contained, as Jean’s are. His works, perfected, clean, free of distractions.

It is this tension that makes Richards’ curatorial endeavor a necessary distraction from distraction.

Geomatic Expressions: William Martin Jean & Susan Squires
October 15 – December 20, 2025

Artist Talk: An Evening with William Martin Jean and Susan Squires
Wednesday, November 19
Doors: 6 pm; Talk: 6:30 pm
The artists will discuss their compelling similarities and contrasts: Jean’s meticulous use of Japanese papers and gold leaf; Squires’ luminous textures in encaustic (hot wax).

Context Gallery
W. 78th Street Studios, Third Floor
1305 West 80th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44102

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[1] NoHo—North Hollywood, “Maps in Art: The Intersection of Geography and Creativity,” August 23, 2023, https://nohoartsdistrict.com/maps-in-art-the-intersection-of-geography-and-creativity/#:~:text=Maps%20in%20art%20serve%20as,customize%20their%20own%20map%20designs (accessed November 11, 2025).