A few blocks from Nature Club Headquarters in NE Portland, painter, Kendra Larson’s studio resides. This past Friday she was kind enough to show us around, and even unwrap some of her older work.
I was originally introduced to Larson via a show at Valentine’s where three works, including Hideaway (photo 3), currently hang. If you’re in the Portland area I would definitely urge you to go see these mystical paintings in person to get the full effect of both her scale and experimentation with mediums and texture (fur, wire, thickly applied paints).
I feel like I can liken my first experience with Hideaway to Rauschenburg’s Bed. While Rauchenburg thought he’d have to worry about people crawling in to fall asleep between the sheets, many critics interpreted his work differently, seeing a violence in the paint. Hideaway elicits a similar duality. You feel compelled to crawl in, but at the same time, there is also a feeling of loneliness and unknown.
Her work constantly challenges our relationship with nature, as well as, how and what nature becomes without us. Both Mt. Hood (photo 9) and her fire signal paintings document the unexplained. Other works like, Northwestern Lights approaches a night sky through Agnes Martin’s grid systems, confronting how minimalism can be applied to nature.
Larson recently completed her MFA at the University of Wisconsin where she began exploring her nostalgia for the Northwest landscape, and larger notions of home and myth. She has continued to work in these themes upon her arrival back to Portland, while experimenting and expanding her work with different material. The morning we arrived in her studio she was doing a small study with colorful wires!
Keep your eyes sharp for a full-page layout of Larson’s work as well as an interview I recently did with her, in the upcoming issue of Tree Sap launching at Valentine’s March 1st! Anika Sabin
Photos 3, 7, 8, 9 are taken from her website, other photo credits go to John Wagner.
Thanks for the thoughtful and kind words! To see my work in person visit Gallery Homeland (2505 Southeast 11th Avenue Portland, OR) during the month of February 2010.
Why can’t I see what I saw earlier? The writeup? It was a fantastic writeup and I wanted to show it to Robert and print it out but this is what I get when I click on anything on FB.
It is really a great writeup