NYAB Event - Caren Canier Exhibition

Caren Canier Exhibition

The Painting Center

This event has ended.

The Painting Center presents Paintings by Caren Canier in the Project Room.

Canier’s paintings in mixed media borrow imagery from the classical world along with nineteenth century and contemporary photographs to create images about human experience of time, history and memory. Her technique involves a combination of collage and painting. Much of her work is informed by time spent in Italy, where layers of history are visibly embedded in the fabric of contemporary life. Recently she has also borrowed imagery from her personal family history, using snapshots from the 1940's and 50's to evoke a sense of time and place particular to the American immigrant experience of post war New York City. These paintings address the nature of snapshots and the way in which they freeze and record intimate memories to create mythologies not only for particular families but also for generations.

Canier studied with Philip Guston and James Weeks at Boston University where she received her MFA, having attended Cornell University as an undergraduate. In 1977 she was awarded the Rome Prize Fellowship of the American Academy in Rome, where she spent a year in residence. The time spent in Rome had a profound influence on her work and she has returned to Italy frequently. She is a Professor in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she teaches Painting, Drawing and Design as part of a multidisciplinary arts and media program.