Opening Exhibition: Eugenia Elder & Sara Shields

The first time I read Ann Michaels’ seminal novel, “Fugitive Pieces,” I was in awe of her masterful use of language - her ability not just to tell a story, but to deliver such palpable descriptions with elegant prose unlike any I had read before. With every sentence reading poetically, Michaels once commented, “[poetry is] such a good discipline for a novelist: it makes you aware that even if you have four or five hundred pages to play with, you mustn’t waste a single word.”

Her novels, including her most recent, “Held,” explore themes of humanity’s relationship to the invisible, focusing on how we are influenced by forces we cannot see: the ghosts of war, grief, even science and technology, and how these unseen forces shape our lives and perceptions.

Though seemingly disparate in style and use of media, with Eugenia working primarily in oils, and Sara in acrylic and pastels, I drew commonalities as I was re-reading Michael’s novel, thus leading me to title their shows with quotations from “Fugitive Pieces.”

“Hold a book in your hand and you’re a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.” Eugenia paints these anonymous figures, seemingly waiting for something or on the precipice of discovering something in/about their surroundings. As they wait for an elevator, or sit in view of an open door, they sit in the paintings as if “at the gates of a new city.”

“The poet moves from life to language, the translator moves from language to life; both like the immigrant, try to identify the invisible, what’s between the lines, the mysterious implications.” In Sara’s work, she explores ideas of rebirth, of escapism, of rising to the surface, with characters that imbue otherworldly qualities. She presents them not in the context of an externally judged “beginning” or “ending” point, but in an eternal present, which is the moment being experienced by the viewer, a timeless middle-ground typically ignored in our polarized society.

The artists’ work will be on view from May 22nd until July 9th.

The main floor of the gallery will host Eugenia’s, “At the Gates of a New City”; the 2nd and 3rd floors of the gallery will show Sara’s new work, “Identify the Invisible.”