light wishes only to be land

In the language of painting, flatness and depth are usually opposites.

Light Wishes Only to Be Land, a group show curated by AAC Resident Artist Becca Kallem features work by Tom Bunnell, Mike Dowley, Liz Guzman, along with Kallem, and presents a variety of approaches to surface and space.

Of her work, Liz Guzman writes, “Sometimes the landscapes are flat and other times they are focused in small paintings of sculptural surface detail.” In the latter, she layers a variety of materials to create bejeweled, object-studded surfaces.

Guzman’s work addresses kitsch and femininity, while Becca Kallem’s pieces stem from philosophical and metaphysical interests.

Both are interested in layers and veils that can conceal or reveal, with openings and apertures that hint at identities, meanings, or other worlds.

Mike Dowley creates paintings and “sculpture-paintings” from memory and observation that represent familiar, beloved places.

Heavily textured oil paintings combine materiality and conventional landscape space. The works are tactile, concrete caricatures of boulders and other organic forms.

Tom Bunnell’s beautifully fractured paintings feature layers of mark and color. If not landscapes, they are sites with both frontal space and depth.