McAllen, TX- The International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS) is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by the artist Anne Marchand opening July 30 through November 13, 2022. The paintings in the exhibition, Abstractions: Anne Marchand, trace the evolution of her abstract work, which is animated by expressive color and the inventive use of materials.
Marchand creates vibrant paintings that evoke a sense of cosmic and bodily energy. Her large-scale works are in constant transformation, and suggest the movement of natural forces, patterns of growth, the insistence of memory, and inner states of feeling.
The exhibition’s earlier works grew out Marchand’s involvement with images of galaxies, nebulae, and planets from the Hubble telescope. These paintings have countervailing arcs and circular forms reminiscent of elliptical orbits and heavenly bodies. Curves play against sheets of color established by vigorous paint handling, implying a sense of order inscribed on a world in constant flux.
Anne Marchand, Mirror, 2016. 72 x 72, acrylic, ink, marker, beads, latex, bark and fabric on canvas.
A series of Marchand’s newer paintings are distinguished by a compositional structure based on geometry which is energized by color, applied with a scraper or a spatula to create complex, variegated fields. At times, interlocking forms delineate the underlying structure; alternately it is expressed in paint applied with gestural vigor. Often many approaches are combined in a single painting: a wandering line moves through a cloud-like expanse, or an image of a temple or a house appears in a welter of pigment, or the transit between above and below is described in a splintering flash of color, both a diagram and an embodiment of movement. Marchand’s most recent works have been affected by her 2016 residency at the Project Space in Mt. Rainier, MD. In the large, industrial space, her paintings increased to 72”x72”, using a process driven purely by the flow of paint. The new work is underpinned by a structure of patterned fabrics embedded under translucent paint, anchoring a more chaotic array of pigment and charcoal marks, thread, glass beads, and other elements. The artist’s introduction of a variety of materials into her paintings began years ago, with the use of mica, sand, Indian silks, and interference and pearlescent pigments. In the recent work, Marchand combines enamel, ink, and acrylic, whose differing viscosities forms liquid fields, reminiscent of weather systems, topography, and biological growth.
Anne Marchand, Unity, 2018. 70 x 62, acrylic and latex on cavas.
Color is crucial to the power and delight of Marchand’s art. It is exists both as an energetic phenomenon and, in her words, as “an indispensable aid in achieving the emotional quality of the work.” John Mendelsohn has written that, “enlivening everything is color…in multifarious ways: like a blush in a cloud, a tint in water, a harmonic chord, or a glowing fire.”
Marchand’s paintings allow poetic associations to arise naturally. She wrote that, “During the process of painting a new insight is released…. Qualities of radiance and light became active metaphors reflecting an inner state of being.” It became apparent to her that “there was a connection between deep space and the human body – it is all the same energy in the macrocosm and the microcosm.”
Marchand has exhibited her work extensively in solo exhibitions at Wallace Wentworth Gallery, Washington, DC; Montgomery College, Silver Spring, MD; Green Chalk Contemporary, Monterey, CA; Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC; and in group exhibitions at Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; Porter Contemporary, New York; Blackrock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD; Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA; and McLean Project for the Arts, McLean VA.
