EXHIBITIONS > In Plein Air

In her solo exhibition with Whitespace in Whitespec, "In Plein Air", MaDora Frey returns to the land where she grew up. The defining feature of her family’s home: a deep, spring-fed pond in the cavity of a former granite quarry and nearby Davidson-Arabia Mountain Park act as settings for her work. Gathered organic materials on location, such as sun-bleached wood, bone, and stone, are co-mingled with manufactured goods like mirrors and dichroic glass. Video taken at the inactive granite mines are projected onto raw canvas, recalling the dips and crags of the landscape. The visual effect is fracturing and mesmerizing as Frey contends with the organic and manufactured elements.
Frey sees her work as an extension of landscape painting. Plein Air painters of the 19th century took their practice out-of-doors to gain direct experience with their subject. Similarly, Frey is onsite responding to the sensory dimensions of the environment at a particular moment. In Plein Air offers an unfolding impression of the artist’s experience and attachment to a familial site. Frey embraces the intertwining of humans and nature and asks us to join the artist’s search for the sublime.