MOST THINGS GLOW FIONA BUCHANAN, MARTA LEE, JACK ARTHUR WOOD JR NOVEMBER 6 — DECEMBER 18, 2021
PRESS RELEASE
“Poetry, fiction, drama -- I am interested in the arts of incident only so far as fiction touches life; oh no, not in any vulgar, autobiographical sense, rather at the level of the most crystalline correspondence. Consider: If an author, passing a mirror, were to see one day not themself but some character of their invention, though they might be surprised, might even question their sanity, they would still have something by which to relate. But suppose, passing on the inside, the character should glance at their mirror and see, not themself, but the author, a complete stranger, staring in at him, to whom they have no relation at all, what is this poor creature left…?”
- Sam Delaney, Dhalgren, 1975
We project and sublimate ourselves into paintings through synecdoche. Shorthand love letters, paint pushed around rippling idiosyncrasies, shoved into nooks, comfy but terrible too. Objects become characters in places we haven’t been yet, but hope to go. Memory absorbs street talismans, flowers bloom in tiny fallen castles, light calls us out of shadow to peer into a shattered looking glass. Begin again. Urgency and meandering seem the same while folly and purpose share equal blame.
Forms have flexible identities, as one semi-circle of vermillion paint can be seen as the sun, a rainbow, or simply, a vibrant field. These paintings strive to be generous visually while still allowing room for and encouraging questions. In Wood’s work, the interiors of the image seem to be held within the frame by the fabric wrapping along the edges; what would happen if they were released? Buchanan’s work is also tenuously attached to reality as it adheres to some of light’s rules while it plays with anthropomorphism in a fantastical manner. Lee’s work in kind nods to the surreality of everyday objects as her hand brings them to life.
These paintings are all deeply rooted in their own devices, as each artist respects their own principles of light, density, color, material, and imagination. The images presented here are askew, almost like a slant rhyme, not quite aligned, but close enough to easily attach to a common visual language.
Fiona Buchanan, Marta Lee, and Jack Wood are all painters based in Brooklyn and Queens. The three became friends through painting, Texas, and the city.
Fiona Buchanan (b. Swampscott, MA) received her BFA from Boston University in 2014. She has shown at Greenpoint Terminal Gallery and Underdonk Gallery in Brooklyn, Spring Break Art Fair in New York, James Madison University in Virginia, Vacation Gallery and PAGE, NYC in New York. Buchanan participated in the Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, Wyoming in 2020 and has attended other residencies such as the Listhus Residency in Olafsfjordur, Iceland, the Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY and the Norfolk Summer School of Art in Norfolk, Connecticut. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Marta Lee (b. Moscow, ID) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She has participated in several residencies including Fire Island Artist Residency, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Hercules Art Studio Program, and most recently, the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts. Lee has exhibited nationally and internationally in Chicago, LA, Austin, New York, London, and Shenzhen. She also works collaboratively with Anika Steppe under the moniker Frances Brady.
Jack Arthur Wood Jr (b. 1990 Cincinnati, OH) is a visual artist and educator currently based in Queens, NY. Wood studied at Guilford College, in Greensboro, NC, receiving a BA in printmaking in 2012, and earned an MFA in printmaking from Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi in 2017. Wood has been an artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and a dual printmaking and education fellow at the Wassaic Project Artist Residency.
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