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Outside & Inside Landscape
curated by Breehan James

October 14 - November 26 2016

OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 5:00-8:00

Landscape painting is an open invitation for reflection. Easily overlooked and hidden beneath layers of the commonplace, one finds complex cultural meanings in idiosyncratic representations of space. Focused time spent looking in contemplation will uncover memories, identity and myth in our contemporary landscape.

"Outside & Inside Landscape" presents ten contemporary artists who utilize representational landscape painting to speak of meaning, time, memory, place and identity. What binds the painters in this exhibition is both their refreshing lack of cynicism and their stubborn belief that landscape painting communicates truths about how we understand ourselves and our time. These artists share an interest in specificity of place and perspective that roots our feet, as viewers, firmly on the ground.

Envisioned in the path of the restorative powers of nature, the work in this exhibition explores varied modes of expressive languages utilized in contemporary landscape painting. From the quietly expressive realist paintings of Richard Ryan and Matvey Levenstein to the strong colors, bold shapes and generous marks of Madeleine Bialke, Shaun Ellison and John Knight, the work comprises a range of responses to the lived environment. The ten artists included in this exhibition work under the understanding that the act of making the landscape painting, in a space of contemplation (whether painting from life or in the studio), contains the locus of its content. The viewer, in turn, has access to this contemplative space through the act of engaging with the work, and the specificity of place presented in the work is transported by each instance of engagement.
---Breehan James

including:

Madeleine Bialke
Richard Ryan
Esteban Cabeza de Baca
Jeremy Miranda
Michelle Morin
Shaun Ellison
Matvey Levenstein
John Knight
Hilary Irons
Breehan James