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Anne Siems: Tableau
Laura Russo Gallery
Portland OR – Jun 7-30, 2007
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Anne Siems, Little Fox (2007), mixed media [Laura Russo Gallery, Portland OR, Jun 7-30]
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Tableau by Seattle-based artist Anne Siems features lone, 19th Century-style women set against landscapes that appear to be stage backdrops. By combining elements of still life, landscape and portraiture, she creates compositions that evoke a quiet, clandestine sense of place. In Viola, for example, strange vestiges hang unnoticed beside a figure whose gaze is moody and gently contemplative. Overall, the new paintings have a more object-based reality than Siems' previous work, where she placed her introspective figures and dress forms against textured and painterly backgrounds with no apparent reference to real spaces.
Anne Siems, Viola (2007), mixed media [Laura Russo Gallery, Portland OR, Jun 7-30]
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The female figures and landscape formations have a pseudo-historic feeling. Garments, personal possessions and hairstyles are reminiscent of our ancestors. Her European folk-art style of painting, the nostalgic objects and the incongruent narratives allude to a romanticized dreamscape where mementos of frivolous beauty are combined with vibrant flowers, animals and mysterious relics. A bizarre, otherworldly tone in Siems' work recalls daydreams, memorabilia and connections to history.
Anne Siems was born in Berlin and received her MFA from Hochschule der Kunste. She has exhibited in galleries throughout the United States, since 1987 when she was a Fulbright Scholar. Her work is represented in prominent collections, including the Tacoma Art Museum.
www.laurarusso.com
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