Observations & Perceptions: Interpreting the Landscape

Interpretations of landscape have varied over time and space depending on the artists and their historical context. The ancient Minoans celebrated their wealth by beautifying their living environs with idealized landscape frescoes. Tang Dynasty Chinese landscapes featured otherworldly mountains where one might escape and commune with nature. As the western world industrialized, the study of nature took on a new urgency and creativity. Some embraced an Edenic nature in opposition to increasing urbanization, while others, influenced by new technology like photography, studied the elements of the visual such as light and color. Freud’s work inspired others to utilize landscape as a means to explore the subconscious.

This exhibition of four artists features renderings of landscapes influenced by the past but also shaped by our contemporary social milieu.

Influenced by Chinese art, Crystal Yachin Lee composes sublime digital photographs featuring vast skies as compositional negative space. The enormity of nature invokes tranquility and a peaceful spirituality, facilitating a meditative response. Yet, in reminding the viewer of the smallness of humankind, one may also ponder the devastating effects of man’s adverse effects on nature.

Deborah Davidson’s surrealist paintings also give precedence to emotive skies but hers are disquieting. Lonely figures or objects precariously balance in the forefront of her images, eliciting an atmosphere of foreboding due to their vulnerability.

Joe Forkan’s more impressionist paintings conjure uncultivated vistas. The delicate pastels and soft brushstrokes evoke quiet twilights where the artist experiments with color, light and atmosphere. This investigation is taken further in the more abstract “Downpatrick” where the colors are more intense and the landscape itself is paired down to a grid.

Eric Merrell’s compositions are constructed of simple, sharp shapes of color with bold brushwork. His design technique and personal perspective give the viewer a fuller sensory experience----one might feel the cool desert air on the back of your neck or hear the rustling of creatures in the brush behind you.

Curatorial Statement written by Christopher Synicky