UNFAMILIAR APPEARING
Anne Dovali + Anna Elise Johnson, 2021
"Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, the key. You still know where you are. Everything is familiar except that there is one item less, one missing element. Or you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it. Either way, there is a loss of control."
- Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (London: Viking Penguin, 2005) 22.
Abstraction, objects, and the in-between. It seems we begin within a world of abstraction, a space trying to understand our place, up and down, right or left, hot and cold, pain and comfort. At certain moments some of those abstractions come together and form an object that becomes a symbol for those ideas. The meaning of that object can be shared with an individual or between many. The object becomes a tool for communication and the more it gets used the more its meaning becomes embedded. Now, relinquish that for a moment and think of abstraction as an ice cube, before it becomes a solid, before it becomes water, and after it melts away.
this is about sensibility
this is about approach
this is about feeling
this is about discovery
this is about loss of control
this is about transition
this is about a physical record
a canvas soaking in the landscape
a transportation through the folds
this is about historical associations
this is improvisational
this is about myths
this is about the American West
this is about difference
this is about interior to exterior
this is about labor
this is about sky
a loosening
a happening
a weightlessness
this is about meditation
this is about comfort
this is about stillness as action
an opening for narrative
this is about excitement
this is about internal revealing
this is about physical weight
this is about paradox
nature as solace
this is about the subconscious
this is about a tactile experience
this is about touch
an embracement of the earth
this is about shifting mediums
this is about dirt and plaster
this is about escape
Anne Dovali + Anna Elise Johnson, 2021
"Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession; you lose a bracelet, a friend, the key. You still know where you are. Everything is familiar except that there is one item less, one missing element. Or you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it. Either way, there is a loss of control."
- Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (London: Viking Penguin, 2005) 22.
Abstraction, objects, and the in-between. It seems we begin within a world of abstraction, a space trying to understand our place, up and down, right or left, hot and cold, pain and comfort. At certain moments some of those abstractions come together and form an object that becomes a symbol for those ideas. The meaning of that object can be shared with an individual or between many. The object becomes a tool for communication and the more it gets used the more its meaning becomes embedded. Now, relinquish that for a moment and think of abstraction as an ice cube, before it becomes a solid, before it becomes water, and after it melts away.
this is about sensibility
this is about approach
this is about feeling
this is about discovery
this is about loss of control
this is about transition
this is about a physical record
a canvas soaking in the landscape
a transportation through the folds
this is about historical associations
this is improvisational
this is about myths
this is about the American West
this is about difference
this is about interior to exterior
this is about labor
this is about sky
a loosening
a happening
a weightlessness
this is about meditation
this is about comfort
this is about stillness as action
an opening for narrative
this is about excitement
this is about internal revealing
this is about physical weight
this is about paradox
nature as solace
this is about the subconscious
this is about a tactile experience
this is about touch
an embracement of the earth
this is about shifting mediums
this is about dirt and plaster
this is about escape
Photos Courtesy of Dan Schwalm
Anne Dovali & Anna Elise Johnson Studio Visits:
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Photos Courtesy of Mike Nesbit
Anna Elise Johnson Studio Visit at Little Italy:
Photos Courtesy of Ross Miller
Video of Anna Elise Johnson's work in progress at Little Italy:
Video Courtesy of Anna Elise Johnson
Email conversation between Anne Dovali, Anna Elise Johnson, and Mike Nesbit regarding this exhibition:
About the Artists:
Anne Dovali received a BFA in painting from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. In 2016 she was published nationally in New American Paintings. She has exhibited at the Jackson Dinsdale Art Center Gallery (Hastings, NE), Project Project, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and other local galleries. She currently lives and works in Omaha, Nebraska.
www.annedovali.com
Anna Elise Johnson received her MFA from the University of Chicago and her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She was a resident at the Core Program in Houston, TX as well as The International Studio Program in London. She has shown her work in exhibitions across the United States as well as internationally. She now lives in Los Angeles, CA.
www.annaelisejohnson.com
Anne Dovali received a BFA in painting from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. In 2016 she was published nationally in New American Paintings. She has exhibited at the Jackson Dinsdale Art Center Gallery (Hastings, NE), Project Project, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and other local galleries. She currently lives and works in Omaha, Nebraska.
www.annedovali.com
Anna Elise Johnson received her MFA from the University of Chicago and her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She was a resident at the Core Program in Houston, TX as well as The International Studio Program in London. She has shown her work in exhibitions across the United States as well as internationally. She now lives in Los Angeles, CA.
www.annaelisejohnson.com