Andrea kantrowitz: Into the woods

EXHIBITION DATES: october 29 - november 23, 2024

RECEPTION: saturday, november 2, 3 - 6 pm

Closing RECEPTION: Saturday, November 23, 4 - 6 pm

The Painting Center is pleased to present Into the Woods a solo exhibition by artist Andrea Kantrowitz on view from October 29 - November 23, 2024 in the Main Gallery. This intensely observed collection of oil paintings and ink drawings invites viewers into the mysterious world of mushrooms and the forests where they are found. Opening Reception is Saturday, November 2 from 3 to 6 pm.

Into the Woods celebrates the intricate beauty and structural complexity of mushrooms Kantrowitz has discovered on her woodland walks through the forests of the Hudson Valley. The works are characterized by their extreme close-up detail, which emphasize the unique shapes, textures, and colors of each mushroom.

The exhibition also features ink drawings of the forests where these mushrooms were discovered, providing a broader view of the rich ecosystem that supports these ephemeral organisms. The drawings complement the paintings by describing the environment, with its cycles of growth, decay and renewal, in which mushrooms play a vital role. While mushrooms appear briefly in the forest, the mycelia from which they spring lie invisibly underfoot all the time.

These works, which begin with a 21st century artist's walk in a specific North American Forest, are very much influenced by 17th century Chinese landscape paintings. Kantrowitz is also inspired by the tradition of naturalists such as Ernst Haeckel, the 19th and early 20th century German zoologist. Integrating scientific and artistic perspectives, "Into the Woods" offers viewers the opportunity to consider their own relation to not just time, and place, but to the concealed infrastructure (roots, mycelium and rhizomes) which literally holds our world together.

By taking the viewer along with her on her peregrinations, Kantrowitz allows the viewer to see both the forest and the trees. Her explorations of mushrooms (peculiar organisms that are neither plant nor animal, but their own kingdom) invite viewers to reconsider the alien nature of these familiar but strange neither/nor bodies. Kantrowitz’s new paintings, once seen, may turn the viewer's next traipse in the woods into, at once, an otherworldly exploration, and a deeply personal meditation.

The Painting Center, known for its commitment to showcasing innovative and thought-provoking contemporary art, is proud to present this exhibition. Into the Woods challenges perceptions and transforms often overlooked or taken-for-granted natural forms into sometimes dramatic and often extraordinary images, inviting viewers to look closer and marvel at the strange worlds hidden in plain sight beneath our feet.

Andrea Kantrowitz is an artist and author whose work has been exhibited widely and who has lectured and given workshops internationally on the relationship between art and cognition. She is author of the book, "Drawing Thought," published by MIT Press, an Associate Professor and Director of the Art Education Program at SUNY New Paltz. Her paintings are included in many private collections, and she is also represented by Kenise Barnes Fine Art.

For more information on the artist, visit: andreakantrowitz.com and @andrea.kantrow.