SELECTED WORKS

Viola Artemani

“My art is about turning the physical into something abstract and vice versa. I’m fascinated by space, memory, and their virtual forms.”

Artemani’s work has long explored human experience, memory, identity, and the symbolic possibilities of space. By moving fluidly between reality and abstraction—and combining different techniques and media—she creates paintings that feel both familiar and elusive.

This year’s exhibition takes us somewhere new. Leaving behind the figures, interiors, and florals of previous exhibitions, Artemani turns her attention to the landscape. Some works originate in direct observation and plein-air painting; others emerge from remembered places and moments from the past. In either case, the landscape becomes more than a record of a particular location. It becomes a vehicle for memory, emotion, and interpretation.

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Artemani moved with her family to Montreal, Canada, in 2000. Today, she divides her time between Montreal and Seattle. Her cultural background, travels, personal experiences, and observations of the lives around her continue to inform her work.

“Painting and drawing for me is a way of thinking and observing the world around me. My inspiration comes from my own life, feelings, emotions and experiences, or sometimes from my observations of the lives of other people.”

Artemani generally begins with an idea of her subject and a broad sense of composition. She develops an outline of where the painting might go, but that initial structure is only a point of departure. Once she begins painting, intuition takes over. The brush moves quickly across the canvas, translating what has been mentally composed while allowing the unexpected to become part of the finished work.

That balance between intention and discovery is central to her process.

“I like to mix different styles and techniques and try to show the space and mood between reality and abstraction. It’s like an exciting game when you can never predict the outcome. What happens is completely unknown at first and therefore fascinating and interesting.”

Working in acrylic, oil, oil pastel, India ink, and pencil, Artemani places particular importance on composition and atmosphere. She builds and alters surfaces until the recognizable and the abstract begin to coexist. A landscape may suggest a specific place, but it can just as easily evoke a memory of somewhere we have been—or perhaps somewhere we only imagine we remember.

Her new landscapes are therefore not simply paintings of places. They are paintings about our relationship to place: what we see, what we retain, what time changes, and what memory reconstructs.

For Artemani, the creative process ultimately involves allowing the conscious and subconscious to meet on the canvas:

“My creative process is fueled by the subconscious. My brain creates, while my hand acts as a conduit, allowing the manifestation of that which exists beyond the conscious self.”

In this new body of work, landscape becomes the perfect setting for that exploration—a place where observation meets memory and where the physical world gradually gives way to something more personal, abstract, and enduring.

Dan Larsen

The paintings in this exhibition evoke celestial events rather than depict them literally. Nebulas, solar flares, planetary surfaces, and distant galaxies emerge through layers of color, texture, and light, encouraging viewers to discover their own interpretations. Monumental in scale yet remarkably intricate, each work reveals new details with every viewing, offering a visual experience that is equally compelling from across the room or just inches away.

Larsen refers to his approach as "paint in motion." His process embraces both intention and spontaneity, allowing industrial materials, chemistry, gravity, and time to become collaborators in the creative act. Rather than forcing every outcome, he orchestrates conditions that allow the materials to respond naturally, producing textures and patterns that cannot be duplicated. The result is work that feels simultaneously controlled and organic -a balance of precision and unpredictability.