Elizabeth Magness
Portals

Artspace Member Spotlight Exhibition

October 28 - November 19, 2022
Elisabeth Flynn-Chapman Gallery

Acrylic on stretched canvas

“This new series ‘PORTALS’ began as experimentations with dark blue paint. The dark blue became a fragmented frame, going in and out of sight and could contain anything and everything. The images could be eyes, wombs, channels, any kind of passageway. They hold a space for transformation, whether the shapes and colors inside are bursting out or more enveloped. Each work captures a moment in time, a window into a crucible in process.

I want to swim in color, live in its expanse. I am continually inspired by summer yellow peaches, fuschia peonies, golden marigolds, the various blues of water. When I mix colors, I like to reuse the same color base from one section and keep adding to it and remixing the paint. In this way, the colors on the canvas stay related and connected but intentionally not exact. I gradually build up thin layers of pigmented glaze to create a glowing depth. 

Each painting’s structure and the shapes within are drawn from things that are unfiltered, uncontrived and organic. I take cracks in a sidewalk or the lines of pollen that remain after a heavy spring rain and reimagine them as ways to divide space on the canvas. They become vessels through which to examine color and a means to create an emotional landscape.

My paintings reflect an honest emotional experience. Each painting captures stolen moments of transcendence as a flawed person in a messy world.  The work reflects a personal journey that must return to optimism, though frequently difficult. Each work is a forged consonance amidst imperfection.”

— Elizabeth Magness

elizabethmagness.com