Sense of Place

May 10 – August 26 2019

Gina Borg, Jennifer Coates, Mary DeVincentis, Allison Gildersleeve, Catherine Haggarty, Angela Heisch, Katherine Jackson, April Zanne Johnson, Deborah Kirklin, Nikki Lindt, Kristen Schiele, Emma Tapley, Nichole van Beek, Rachael Wren

1GAP Gallery is pleased to present Sense of Place, a group exhibition curated by Michael Holden. This show explores places observed through the eyes and imaginations of women artists whose inspirations of place enhance their languages of painting. Aesthetic statements find insight through both strength and sensitivity. The painter Agnes Martin wrote, “Walking seems to cover time and space, but in reality, we are always just where we started. I walk, but in reality, I am hand in hand with contentment on my own doorstep.”

“Place incarnates the experiences and aspirations of a people. Place is not only a fact to be explained in the broader frame of space, but it is also a reality to be clarified and understood from the perspectives of the people who have given it meaning.” Yi-Fu Tuan wrote in 1977. A sense of place can spark the imagination through childhood memories of exploration and play or an adult’s perspective on the relationship of place to self. The artistic practice can identify with place to gain familiarity with the unfamiliar searching for new interpretations of art. 

Women’s voices now guide society during this politically problematic time. A well-informed statement holds greater profoundness as we are forced to defend human rights and face a delicate ecosystem affected by global warming. Art counters the prevalence of human dominance that has detracted from the cultivation of an awareness of place. A sentimental attachment to place can be informed from one’s range of experiences from joy to fear. The medium of painting allows for prolonged observations to construct mindful images that are unique in today’s fast-moving world of immediate images.  

A sense of place is found in this exhibition’s contemporary perspective by these women artists. Sense of Place will immerse the viewer in a haven of enjoyment and nurturing, that both challenges and encourages one to reflect.

Michael Holden, Curator, New York, May 2019