Exhibitions
SASKIA FLEISHMAN: LIMINAL HORIZONS
The Red Arrow Gallery / 919 Gallatin Ave. , Suite 4 May 6, 2023 - May 28, 2023
Saskia Fleishman
My current series of paintings offer a metaphysical connection to the world by preserving the spirit of the landscape where I am from and other natural places, I have recently spent time in. I grew up in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay where my father was a landscape architect, my grandmother a landscape photographer, and my grandfather a pioneering wetland scientist. In recent years it has become clear, the tidewater landscape I call home is slowly disappearing because of the bay's rising sea level eroding the land. This body of work ties our ephemeral landscapes to my fascination with the spiritual complexities of our existence. The pieces often depict vivid sunsets, full moons, or sunrises; transitory times of day that highlight our fleeting nature, but are ultimately perpetual, and invite meditation. Beaches, wetlands, mountain ranges, high plains, deserts, and wooded areas where I have felt the comfort and vast mystery nature holds, are sources for inspiration.
The paintings begin with out-of-focus snapshots I have taken of these places, that are digitally printed on transparent chiffon and stretched on bars. The prints are then overlaid with opaque flat masked airbrushed gradients and thick acrylic paint mixed with sand that I have collected from various landscapes. The sand and paint mixture articulates the clouds, water, land, and vegetation in each work. Finally, a layer of thin paint is directionally airbrushed over the textural areas, to create an illusion of light and shadow.
In each work, the printed photographs are visible within cut-out symmetric abstracted symbols that represent the spiritual sensitivity, wonder and liminality I have felt in these places. The transparent shapes form metaphorical portals to see through the veil of our temporal world, into possible realms beyond our own. These paintings honor the transient nature of life while acknowledging the eternal relationship we have to the universe, in hopes of finding transcendence and harmony. – Artist Statement, Saskia Fleishman
Saskia Fleishman (B. 1995, Baltimore, MD), graduated Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 with a B.F.A. in painting. She has been an artist in residence at The Jentel Foundation, Tongue River Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project, PADA Studios, ChaNorth and Trestle Studios, and a curator in residence at Otis College of Art and Design. Saskia’s work has been exhibited at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, Dinner Gallery in New York, NY, Unit London in the UK, Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, and Silo 6776 in New Hope, PA, among others. Fleishman is currently based in Philadelphia, PA. This is her first solo show with Red Arrow.
Image: Prisms (Big Horn Medicine Wheel), 2023, acrylic and sand on digitally printed chiffon, 28”x47.5”
