Heather Stivison an artist previously known for works that explore the intersection of environmental science and visual art in her immersive paintings of the ocean air and sky will now debut artworks on a new theme: exploring and comparing historical and contemporary migration and border issues. Heather Stivison: Borders and Boundaries opens on June 11 at Pleiades Gallery 547 West 27th Street Suite 304. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 12-6 p.m.
The fourteen narrative works in the exhibition are a tapestry of drawings found objects textiles and paintings including a 48” x 97” oil painting Stivison described as an “oil-sketch.” The works depend heavily on desaturated colors primarily blacks greys and whites which serves to intensify their content. The unifying feature of these interdisciplinary artworks is that they consider borders and boundaries in terms of the basic human need for a place to call home.
Like all of her previous narrative works this subject is deeply researched. And yet her Borders and Boundaries artworks maintain an authenticity of her perspective of race age class and life experience. She prods and pokes at her comfortable life and that of her peers. A drawing of the artist’s own white picket fence emerges from a suburban real estate survey stamped with tiny red letters stating “not my problem.” Another drawing features a conglomeration of take-out coffee cups and cell phones while ghostly figures and bits of a Ukraine map are barely visible beneath.
Figures when included are predominantly female. Some reference historical immigration some reference today’s immigration issues some express longing all bear questions about human dignity. Oil-Sketch: Legacy speaks directly to the issue central to Stivison’s motivation for the series—what kind of world will we leave to our children?
Art critic Don Wilkinson said of Stivison writing in The New Bedford Standard-Times “Much of her imagery although clearly rooted in reality flirts with the abstract. It is that nexxus between the two poles where she is most comfortable as an artist. In the space of visual disruption she opens herself up to the possibility of different narratives than simple observation might deliver.”
Stivison has exhibited throughout the United States and in both national and international juried and invitational exhibitions. This is her second New York solo exhibition. For more information about the artist and her work visit https://www.heatherstivisonart.com/.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Pleiades Gallery - 547 West 27th St Suite 304 NY, NY 10001, 547 W 27th St #304, New York, NY 10001, United States, Manhattan
