Show: We Are One (2018)

"We Are One"

February 17 to March 3, 2018

Littlejohn Contemporary - New York, NY

In this body of work, I have moved back to more representational elements. The abstraction interplays now with the animals and complete, but transparent bodies of the children. It is an ongoing inquiry in the desire to transmit a sense of energy, a state of being and feeling into the paintings. When one inquiry feels completed I move on, often revisiting places in my older work, but finding new ways to interact with it.

We Are One follows the longing of my heart and the knowledge of my mind about the interconnected web of all life on earth. The deeper we come into contact with this knowledge not only abstractly, but with visceral experiencing, the more urgent need to be the actions we take to protect that Oneness.

In my work I try to be as honest and true to myself as I can without losing discernment. I aim as best as I can for sincerity, intimacy and openness in my paintings. In them I find the beginning of something that touches the universal. It is a place where others can touch the magic and sensuality that gets exposed in the process.

I think deep inside of us lives a longing to experience a sense of 'falling in love'. A visceral experience without words. For that to happen, this place needs to be free of irony, social commentary or conceptual humor. I am looking in my work to find the point in which we feel a certain ache – the ache caused by the knowledge that life is full of light and dark, sacred and profane, beauty and ugliness, life and death.

Anne Siems 2017