Invented Ground
Susan Barnes
January 18 - March 9, 2024
About the Show
Susan Barnes’ evocative landscapes are both expansive and introspective. They are dramatic but feel familiar. They are invented yet grounded. Through and because of these dualities, the paintings evoke the sublime.
In this body of work, Invented Ground, I want to create a sense of physical movement through vast exterior spaces that suggest the earth without depicting it. The painted lines are not only a means of eye movement across a composition, but an allusion to human activity on the ground.
I like to think a painting on a two dimensional surface can offer a sense of expansion the way an uninterrupted horizon does in nature. I like to think a mark in paint and a scratch on a surface will be a road for some viewers and a bird for others. I want this work to be liberating and physical.
I sense agriculture, architecture, bodies of water, lines of piers, fences, stakes when I paint. I remember places I have viewed from trains or planes--the sense of landing and taking off in the body. Gravity!
In the language of paint there can be unlimited freedom in interpretation. These paintings are like views at a glance in motion from afar. You can't be sure. There is no right or wrong. There is only initially a sense of ground, light, and movement across the earth, sky or water and, ultimately a point of view.
- Susan Barnes
Preview the Exhibition
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