Ilana Manolson “Sum Of”

Jason McCoy, Inc. (Midtown)

poster for Ilana Manolson “Sum Of”
[Image: Ilana Manolson "Walking Walden" (2015) Acrylic on Yupo paper, 38 x 45 1/2 in.]

This event has ended.

Jason McCoy Gallery presents its second solo exhibition of Ilana Manolson, featuring a selection of new paintings.

A botanist and former naturalist for Parks Canada, Ilana Manolson walks through nature on nearly a daily basis. While she used to paint directly from life for years, her recent works are primarily made from recollection. They aim to merge and connect many miles of disparate stretches of landscape, fusing a variety of impressions into a singular image. Skillfully layered, Manolson’s subjects range from views of epic expanse to close studies of nature’s intricate details. Many of these she observes by revisiting particular places repeatedly, making the passing of time a central notion of her work and with that the fragility of existence.

It is due to the fact that her compositions are made from memory that another aspect gains importance: subjectivity. In the studio, Manolson edits her experiences and combines glimpses of her visual recollections with her knowledge of the topic. Free to associate and elaborate, she collages information. By the time she makes her first mark, the collected images have become detached from their original context. In a sense, they have been liberated from exact locations or seasonal specifications. Stripped of such concrete indicators, they appear timeless and become iconic representations of nature.

Despite its contextual ties to the tradition of 19th Century landscape painting, Manolson’s work also relates to contemporary life. Especially, her focus on bringing together a multitude of experiences and visuals in one plane reflects today’s approach to image making and viewing. Without the use of digital technology, Manolson still offers us the possibility of zooming in and out of information, focusing on the abstract movement of a creek and the remarkable detail of a single stalk of grass at the same time. Meanwhile, by working on aluminum panels and sheets of mounted Yupo paper, Manolson favors supports whose slickness can easily relate to today’s flat screens. Her paint is not absorbed by her surfaces, but rather perches on top, assuring an overall sense of fluidity.

Ilana Manolson was born in 1956 in Calgary, Alberta. She received a degree from Goddard College where she studied botany and art (1978), and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (1982). She is a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship for Painting, a St. Botolph Artist Grant, and an Artists Foundation Installation Grant, to name a few. Institutional exhibitions of her work include the Danforth Museum of Art, Southern New Hampshire University, Tufts University Art Gallery, Concord Art Museum, Boston Public Library, Endicott College, Beverly Gordon College, Ballin Castle Museum, Regis College, and the De Cordova Museum, among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of Museum of Fine Arts Boston; De Cordova Museum; Fuller Museum of Art; Danforth Museum; Boston Public Library; Boston Athenaeum; Ballinglen Arts Foundation and the Berkeley Museum of Art, among others. She lives and works in Concord, Massachusetts and Sausalito, California.

Media

Schedule

from June 06, 2017 to July 28, 2017

Opening Reception on 2017-06-06 from 17:00 to 19:00

Artist(s)

Ilana Manolson

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