The gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Anne Harris. This show will include two new paintings and six works on paper. This will be the gallery’s first show of Harris’s work.

Some of Harris’s most arresting work has been self-portraiture. In this show she renews that exploration, this time focusing on the effects of gravity on the body. The downward pull of flesh that comes with ageing is emphasized in these works, in which the figure often gazes down. Harris has never been one for flattery and in many ways she paints herself at her unflinching worst. In this scrutinizing mode she finds her veiny, fleshy, overripe and slackening body tempered with subtle fragility.

At the same time there is a strange beauty present, achieved through labored formal means. Layers of translucent paint become glowing diffused flesh on atmospheric monochrome backgrounds (suggesting a sort of nether world). There is a back and forth between the process driven, labor-intensive building and the anxiety filled intensity of the gaze which freezes the moment in time. This duality has the effect of speeding up and slowing down time.

Curator Allison Ferris wrote in her 2003 essay Without Likeness, “The pellucid skin of her shoulders, arms, hands, and thighs recedes into the background of the paintings. The diffusive background, in turn, is skin-like and joins almost seamlessly with her body. The ambiguous boundaries between the subject and the background suggest that the qualities of Harris’s body extend to the whole canvas. Her body is,
in a sense, the painting.”

Anne Harris (b. 1961) received an MFA from Yale. Her work has been exhibited at Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art and The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. She is the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is in the collections of Arkansas Art Center, Fogg Art Museum and the New York Public Library.