Spalding Nix Fine Art
Saturday, October 4
12-4 p.m.
Location Address:
425 Peachtree Hills Ave NE, Suite 30A, Atlanta, GA 30305
Spalding Nix Fine Art
Exhibition title:
SYNTHESCAPES
Exhibition Description:
Spalding Nix Fine Art is thrilled to announce SYNTHESCAPES, a presentation of three shows by Katherine Sandoz, Eilis Crean and Claire Whitehurst. The artists in this show have created distinct bodies of work that question our perception of time, place and governing systems though synthesized imagined landscapes.
Savannah-based artist Katherine Sandoz’s “the gloaming,” is a series of abstract paintings that aspires to create additional twilight experiences with the bardos being the subject and iris blossoms and landscapes being the construct, enabling the viewer to inhabit multiple places within the pictorial space. Atlanta-based artist Eilis Crean’s “Meanderspace” is a series of invented landscapes, alluding to both wild and cultivated spaces, that layer clusters of broken mark making to generate vibrational color, shifting the viewing experience from recognition to sensation. Philadelphia-based artist Claire Whitehurst’s “With A Flower” is a series of works on paper and ceramics that center around the floral form, navigating the intricate passageways linking the human body, the political body, and the plant body, each governed by distinct yet interconnected systems of growth and repair.
Artist Bio(s)
Katherine Sandoz - the gloaming
Savannah-based Artist Katherine Sandoz’s “the gloaming” is a series of 24 layered and multi-dimensional works on canvas. The gloaming, or twilight, is a space between day and night. In a twilight state, we are neither awake nor asleep. The condition presents as transitional, dream-like, possibly transformational in nature. One’s ability to disappear or emerge collapses and fuses. This concept teaches us how the bardo, traditionally known as the space between life and death, might be extended.
Each painting in the series merges two structural presentations: iris blossoms with far-flung and diverse landscapes. With its distinctive structure and fleeting bloom, the iris becomes both a symbol of impermanence and a structural and compositional model for the landscape. “What if everything in the physical world shares the iris’ morphology?” asks Katherine. “What if everything and everyone, including the shape of The Universe, is a flower?”
In these works, the petals of the iris unfurl to become clouds, skies, and terrain that could belong to this world or another. The hybrid forms—part flower, part landscape—do not resolve into singular interpretations. Instead, they shift in and out of legibility, echoing the disorientation and possibility of the bardo. The layered image allows us to be in several places at once: in a shadow, on a path, standing at the foot of a mountain, skimming the surface of a caldera. Conceptually, the viewer is invited to be a part of any plane, place, or happening or to discover and know all of them simultaneously.
“In the gloaming, we are in and of everything: passing tempests, shadows, crashing waves, whirlpools of salt and fresh water, melting ice, and each one a vivid, vibrant, fugitive iris blossom,” says Katherine. “Within this body of work, abstraction and color volley to conceal and reveal. The paintings become bardos, allowing the viewer to inhabit many liminal spaces in one moment, in myriad ways and in varying timelines.”
Katherine holds an MFA in Painting and an MFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she was Professor of Illustration from 1997 to 2005. In 2019, The Telfair Museum’s Jepson Center for the Art commissioned a large-scale aerial sculpture and mural for their atrium from Katherine. In 2021, she was named the featured Fine Artist at the Thomasville Wildlife Arts Festival, Thomasville, GA. Katherine has acted as an independent curator for Telfair Museums and Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. Her paintings sit in the permanent collections of the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, Savannah College of Art and Design, Moffit McKinley Cancer Center, Baptist Medical Center, Perry Lane Hotel, Thomasville Center for the Arts, Phillips Arena and Emory Healthcare.
Eilis Crean - Meanderspace
Irish American Artist Eilis Crean’s “Meanderspace” is a series of new abstract paintings influenced by her current environment in Georgia, memories of rural and coastal Ireland, and the interplay of nature and human migration. These abstract works are invented landscapes that allude to both wild and cultivated spaces, such as a backyard, a cliffside path, a north Atlantic headland, or semi-tropical undergrowths and canopies. The painting process involves layered broken markmaking to create vibrational color, shifting the viewer's experience from recognition to sensation. “My intent is to dematerialize and rebuild observed and imagined forms, generating hybrid environments that evoke cyclical and metaphoric journeys,” says Eilis.
Eilis exhibits nationally and internationally including at the David J. Spencer Museum, CDC, Atlanta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Georgia (MOCA GA), Spartanburg Art Museum, SC, University of North Carolina, Red Line Contemporary Art Center, Denver, CO, Hambidge Center, GA, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland, The Visual, Carlow, Ireland, Irish Consulate, Atlanta. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Irish State Collection, Latvian State Collection, French State Collection, LaGrange Museum, GA, King & Spalding (Atlanta). She is Professor Emerita of Art at University of West Georgia.
Claire Whitehurst - With a Flower
Philadelphia-based artist Claire Downes Whitehurst’s “With a Flower” is a new body of works on paper centered on the floral form. Her show takes its title from Emily Dickinson’s poem of the same name and explores the intersection of the human figure and floral morphology, considering how their overlap can create a sense of intimacy between two fragile, unsuspecting presences.
While spanning multiple mediums, Whitehurst’s practice remains grounded in the study of botanical forms and their relationship to human experience. “Flowers embody both beauty and complexity. They hold and burst forth, attract and endanger, sustain life and mark its transience,” says Claire. “Moving through cycles of bloom and decay, they mirror our own existence within a rhythm that is at once tender, sensual, and violent.”
Claire is a painter, printmaker and sculptor. She received her BFA from the University of Mississippi, and her MFA in Painting from the University of Iowa. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Stanley Fellowship for International Research at the University of Iowa. She worked in the Dordogne region of southern France where she studied polychromatic cave paintings and engravings. Her research focused on the relationship between surface and image, and the compositional complexities of abstract narrative. Claire has exhibited nationally and internationally, and a book of her drawings and poetry was published in 2021 through Drum Machine Editions, Asheville, North Carolina. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including New American Paintings, Oxford American, ArtMaze Magazine, and the Graphite Journal in collaboration with the Hammer Museum along with many others. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Claire lives and works in Philadelphia.
Organization Bio
Established in 2003, Spalding Nix Fine Art focuses on Artists in & of the Southeast. In a market where men have traditionally dominated, the majority of our Artists are women. With six curated shows annually, we celebrate work across all disciplines from a diverse range of emerging to established Artists. We believe that Art is the cultural thread that weaves us together. It captures, conveys & connects our experiences. Regularly hosting a variety of public & virtual events, our goal is to teach, support & inspire our community of Art Lovers. As an Accredited Member of the American Society of Appraisers, providing valuation services for donation, estate, insurance & litigation-related purposes, Spalding Nix has a keen eye on the state of the current Art market. The gallery is open Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., or by appointment