Suzanne Montgomery: Body and Shadow

Exhibition Dates: July 21, 2015 - August 15, 2015

Reception: Thursday, July 23, 6 - 8 pm

In her most recent work, Body and Shadow, Suzanne Montgomery continues to effectively pursue contemporary figural painting using a unique assessment of the human body in relation to space. Unlike many figure paintings, figure over ground or figure against ground, her paintings consistently attempt to activate and engage space, to elevate space, giving it weight, substance, and identity using the human form as catalyst. Her writhing bodies in sticky paint struggle or retire in seemingly benign and dreamy environs, while Montgomery establishes sensitive equations between the two, two-way chemical reactions, triggering a range of powerful associations and psychologically resonant sensations. Her figures are completely absorbed with space itself, as though nothingness is a formidable element to be engaged, danced with, or placated. Her unique understanding of figure and ground evokes visceral questions about consciousness, centeredness, solitude, gravity and what it means to be engaged in the real world while simultaneously drawn to the center of our individual essential natures.