Anne Austin Pearce: Leaving Alone

September 30 - December 19, 2017 Admission

In her installation titled collectively Leaving Alone, Anne Austin Pearce links five separate artworks through a blending of literature, ecology, and aesthetics. Pearce, who maintains a studio in Kansas City, is well regarded for her ink and acrylic paintings that feature layered, biomorphic forms and dazzling, saturated color. Her overlapping abstract shapes, resembling psychedelic amoebas, also take their cues from cloud formations, rolling landscapes, and tidal pools. Pearce’s work is fundamentally reflective of her experience of the world and its various geographies, ecosystems, philosophies, and histories.

Central to Pearce’s investigation is a concern for maintaining mindfulness in our relations with beings and systems that rely on humanity’s respect. In her telling, dominion over the earth is not the same as stewardship, and Pearce exhorts us to be aware of our actions and their consequences. The exhibition introduces a monumental, free-form mural inspired by the myth of Icarus, an archetypal tale of hubris and oblivion. Other components are influenced by authors Margaret Atwood and Virginia Woolf. Each work or group of works probes a different branch of the overarching story, about the instability of life, the desire for sovereignty, the necessity of conscience.

Gallery Talk: Thursday, October 26, at 6 p.m.