NYAB Event - Ann Shostrom "Harvest"

Ann Shostrom "Harvest"

Elizabeth Harris Gallery

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Ann Shostrom’s paintings operate within the seams of fine art and craft traditions, informed by the uses of collage in modern and folk art. She uses fabrics and used household linens that are dyed, painted, embroidered, and sewn together. Shostrom uses open-ended processes to create the dyed fabrics that become building materials for her constructions. Her wax resist methods include melting by blowtorch, burning votive candles, and drawing with traditional tools. Fluid dynamics combine with chemistry to produce landscape forms. Erosion rends the fabric. Tears and holes open new vistas. She joins formalist abstraction to the history of domestic labor and craft. By sewing one tradition into another, weaving across formal boundaries, she makes art from remnants and ruins, repairing and reconstructing as she works.

Shostrom’s work expands the dialogue about the current state and possibilities of painting. In our post-modern era, the oft-pronounced death of painting has given way to an acceptance of the multiplicity of perspectives that make up the genre. Her work is firmly grounded in the traditions of painting, but arrives at painting methods and ideas through unconventional means. Her work extends the vast, complicated potential of the medium.

Ann Shostrom was born in Chicago. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Syracuse University. Shostrom lives and works in New York City and teaches at Penn State University.