NEW YORK, NY.- Littlejohn Contemporary presents a one-person exhibition of recent paintings by Anne Siems. The Exhibit, “We Are One”, will run from January 17 through March 3, 2018.
In this body of work I have moved back to a more clearly representational narrative. There continues to be important abstract elements (loops, dots, circles, and hazy painterly backgrounds) but the interplay is now greater between those and the more fully rendered - yet transparent - animals’ and children’s bodies.
Mine is an ongoing inquiry and desire to transmit a sense of energy, a state of being and feeling into my paintings. When one inquiry feels resolved I move on, often revisiting places in my older work and finding new ways to interact with it.
‘We Are One’ follows the longing of my heart and the knowledge of my mind about the interconnected web of all life on earth. The deeper we come into contact with this knowledge-- not only abstractly but with visceral experience -- the more urgent become the actions we need to take to protect that Oneness.
In my work I try to be as honest and true to myself as I can without losing discernment. I aim for sincerity, intimacy and openness in my paintings. In them I find the beginning of something that touches the universal. It is a place where others can touch the magic and the sensuality that gets exposed in the process.
I think deep inside all of us lives a longing to experience a sense of 'falling in love' - a cerebral and visceral experience without words. For that to happen, this place needs to be free of irony, social commentary, or conceptual humor. I am looking in my work to find the point in which we feel a certain ache – the ache caused by the knowledge that life is full of dualities- light and dark, sacred and profane, beauty and ugliness, life and death.
--Anne Siems, November 2017
Anne Siems, who is German-born and now living in Seattle, has drawn her inspiration from the natural world, its flora and fauna, as well as mythology. A Fulbright Scholar, she has exhibited in Canada and in Europe and widely throughout the United States. Her work is included in such collections as the Arkansas Art Center, Boise Art Museum, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Fidelity Investments, Hallmark Collection, Microsoft Collection, Nestle USA, Nordstrom, Safeco, Seattle University, Sonoma State University Art Collection, and the Tacoma Art Museum, among others. This is the artist’s sixth solo exhibit with Littlejohn Contemporary.
