Chiaroscuro Spring
“Chiaroscuro Spring highlights the work of seven artists whose work celebrates Spring as not only a season but a time of growth and rebirth. Throughout the show, the included artists, Anita Allyn, Marilyn Holsing, Sam Nejati, Heather Ossandon, Laurie Beck Peterson, Rebecca Saylor Sack, and Jacqueline Yvonne present their own unique interpretations of nature’s gradual transition into Spring.
We are at a moment of time for cultural rebirth and reawakening as we emerge from what has felt like a year long winter of isolation. As cities reopen and we reunite with friends and family we ourselves are in a state of Spring-like blossoming: tentatively reaching out towards the sun in the hope of a warmer tomorrow. Anita Allyn and Laurie Beck Peterson capture the tenderness of this new-growth most directly through photography. Allyn captures delicate new branches and growth against stark black backgrounds referencing Flemish oil paintings. The heaviness of these images are balanced by being printed on silk, allowing her work to seemingly breathe in space. Beck Peterson explores non-traditional printing techniques and turns her images into not just prints, but also imposes them on tree limbs and stumps questioning the image/the real and the sign/the signifier.”