BEYOND PLANET EARTH
Hot Housed, Volunteers, and Anomalies
Anne LaPrade Seuthe

February 3 - 24, 2020
Opening Reception: Monday, February 3, 5 – 7 p.m.

 

Anne LaPrade Seuthe’s new work offers insight into Augusta Savage Gallery’s theme for the semester, Beyond Planet Earth. She states: “Whatever lies Beyond Planet Earth… we would be well served to leave behind what doesn’t work, salvage what does work, and accept the varieties of people and species that are stronger and more sustainable for the sum of their differences.”

This provocative statement as well as a highly personalized aesthetic reflect the artist’s breadth of experience. Following are some thoughts about her process, which has led to these paintings:
“When I was invited to show at Augusta Savage Gallery under the title of Beyond Planet Earth I had just completed a body of work that dealt with the human life span in relationship to the cosmos. The body of work previous to that one had sprung from one focused on the landscape as seen close up and from afar. Beyond Planet Earth seemed to be the next logical step for the paintings to go in. One long standing aspect of my painting process is to paint over paintings. Usually this happens in the course of working on any given painting when something anticipated is not achieved and the piece then cycles back to a gesso prepared surface. With the work for Beyond Planet Earth, I decided to stop short of the re-gesso prepared surface, and rather than obliterate any of the paintings’ history, I decided to deliberately leave vestiges of their former iterations. In some cases what remains from the original paintings serve simply as mark making in the negative space. In others what remains becomes an integral part of the way the image is read.

One of the popular derisive terms for a painter whose work is devoid of meaning is that of “fruit and flower painter.” As my paintings progressed flowers became the dominant image – Yikes! And yet, as obvious metaphorical material for concerns relating to nature/nurture as well as to growth/decay I set aside my initial hesitancy and chose to continue in this direction. The resulting paintings, I think of as variations of “Hot Housed”, “Volunteers” and “Anomalies.” Each painting features an image of a real or imagined flower. I chose to play with scale and to use fluorescent and neon colors. Each painting/flower can be understood as a stand in for a person. There are those who need a sheltered environment to protect their innate fragility (hot housed). There are those that exude inner strength and that need no special handling (the volunteers), and there are those that fit no mold (the anomalies).”

Anne LaPrade Seuthe holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts. Her public and collaborative projects include X Marks the Spot, DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY, Intrude 366 at the Zendai MoMa in Shanghai, China, SUPERNatural at AiO in Easthampton, MA, Physical Geography/Psychological Landscape at the Goethe Institute in Dresden, Germany and at the Distillery Gallery in Boston, MA, and The Coaster Project at the Fuller Museum. She has been a resident artist in the East/West artist residency in Romania and her work has been included in Mapping Heaven, Front Room Gallery, NY, The American Dream at Takt Projekt Raum, Berlin, Germany.LaPrade Seuthe has had solo exhibitions at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, MA, The Augusta Savage Gallery and Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Main Art Gallery at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and at the Taber Gallery in Holyoke, MA. She has been awarded the Strathmore Paper Award, a study-abroad award from the Ministry of Culture, Germany, and a NEFA Presenters Award. She lives and works in Western Massachusetts.

Anne LaPrade Seuthe's website