Terra Plume: Paintings by Katie St. Clair
UMA Charles Danforth Gallery, Jewett Hall
February 27 鈥� March 27, 2020
Opening Reception and Artist Talk
Thursday, February 27th 鈥� 3:45 – 5:30 p.m.
鈥淪tories are held in the landscape.鈥� 鈥� Katie St. Clair
AUGUSTA 鈥� With bright colors erupting in powdery sprays or running in diluted washes, the paintings in Terra Plume, North Carolina-based artist Katie St. Clair鈥檚 new exhibition at the 天美传媒鈥檚 Charles Danforth Gallery, transform the forms and structures of one of nature鈥檚 most hidden realms, the secret underworld of mushrooms that connect forest root-systems, into lucid abstractions.
St. Clair explains her exhibition鈥檚 title: 鈥淭erra means earth, layers of soil, the home of mushrooms and their hidden networks of mycelium. Plume is a feather, a column of smoke rising from the ground, or a wisp of spores released when a mushroom has been disturbed. While painting, I was searching for the tangible colors, forms and textures of what I can see above ground and letting them hover like an uncanny veil over the deep earth and all that lies unknown.鈥�
An Assistant Professor of Art at Davidson College in North Carolina, St. Clair鈥檚 work has long explored the relationship between humans and our natural environment. While her previous series Fruiting Bodies focused on the intrinsic beauty and beneficial qualities of mushrooms, the new series of works shown for the first time in Terra Plume explores the complexity and duality between what lies above and below the earth鈥檚 surface. 鈥淲hen we think of mushrooms, we think of the stem and cap as the whole mushroom, but what we are seeing is more like the bud of a plant. The mycelium can be thought of as the plant that grows the bud. It moves underground…this massive, unseen, scary and almost magical thing that鈥檚 all around us, that exists without our knowing.鈥� St. Clair explains. Mushroom caps are often found under decaying leaves or germinating in the remains of damp, felled trees. These are the visible signs of a system of mycelium that threads through layers of soil and tree roots, connecting diverse organisms in a subterranean web.
Terra Plume features several multi-colored pieces of artwork, ranging from smaller 鈥淔ield Notes鈥� to large 40鈥� x 60鈥� canvases, as well as informational material on the duality of mushrooms and displays showcasing St. Clair鈥檚 facility with color and form. The majority of this work was created during the artist鈥檚 time at the Penland School of Craft, where she was an Artist in Residence in January of this year. An accomplished artist, St. Clair was recently awarded the Young Affiliates of the Mint鈥檚 Choice Award for her work in an exhibition at the Mint Museum. Her work was shown at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2019, and she worked with students at the University of Kentucky in 2018 to create a mural on the ecological importance of milkweed.
Abstracted from close observation of the terrestrial and underground structures of mushrooms, St. Clair鈥檚 series of nearly thirty paintings invite viewers into the lush visuality of an often-overlooked natural form common to the forests of North Carolina and Maine鈥攖he resilient structures that quietly bind our environment together.听 In Gallica (2020), seafoam-green swirls of paint collide with powdery magenta鈥攚hat the artist calls an 鈥渙bservational abstraction鈥� of the mushroom of the same name. She explains, 鈥淚 research. I study the visual texture, color, form and non-visual sensations like taste, smell, and touch. I rearrange those elements and come to a new awareness of the mysteries that surround me.鈥�
Terra Plume is on display from February 27th to March 27th, and the public is welcome to visit the gallery in Jewett Hall, which is open on Mondays through Thursdays from 9:00am to 5:00pm and on Fridays from 9:00am to 4:00pm. 听The UMA community and the general public are also invited to the opening reception and artist talk on Thursday, February 27th from 3:45 – 5:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
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Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday 9:00am-5:00pm, Fridays 9:00am 鈥� 4:00pm