Moira Dryer and Laura de Santillana: Air and Light
Upper Gallery
April 14 - May 20, 2023
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"[Dryer’s] painting was a subtle and volatile mix of air and light, experimentation and perfectionism, open-ended casualness and resolution, understatement and high concept."
Ross Bleckner
"It contains nothing, but it’s still a container, a vessel. It contains color and light."
Laura de Santillana
We are pleased to present works by Moira Dryer and Laura de Santillana, two artists who have never been exhibited together before. Working in different mediums—Moira Dryer with casein on ordinary plywood, and de Santillana with compressed glass—both defied the nature of their materials: the weight of wood and glass became sheer lightness and effervescence. Both played with transparency and translucency, and both were poetic artists who drew inspiration from Italian art.
Born two years apart, Dryer in 1957 in Toronto and de Santillana in 1955 in Venice, both died in the prime of their careers, Dryer at 34 and de Santillana at 64, having achieved so much, but with much more left to be said.
"These images are in state of flux long after the paint has dried. They have a life of their own. In a perpetual state of transformation, they are potential images moving in and out of focus. They belong to a primal state, next door to dream and memory."
Moira Dryer
"It starts with the breath. I like working with glass because you put air—your breath—inside the material and you close it inside. It’s the moment between inhaling and exhaling."
Laura de Santillana