Inclinations: Ann Royer

Design & Photography : Gilded Pear Gallery

On the cover: Abstract: Red Blossoms, pg 23

February 19 - May 11, 2024

Reception: March 15, 2024

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Artist Biography

Ann Royer was born in Sioux City, Iowa. She began taking classes at the Sioux City Art Center as a young child, shortly after the Art Center opened in 1938. After studying at the Colorado College Fine Arts Center and the University of Minnesota, she began creating art professionally in Duluth and quickly achieved wide acclaim. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, with permanent collections across the U.S. in homes and corporations.

Royer is a multidisciplinary artist with more than 60 years of experience. Her paintings are best known for growing tendril lines, sweeping bold blocks of color, voluminous shapes filled with patterns, and sharp geometry. Her wide repertoire consists of abstracts, female figures, florals, and her beloved horses. She says of her work, “I have always thought each person looks at art bringing with them their own experiences, which governs what they see no one should interfere with that process.”

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Portrait of the artist in studio

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Snapshots of artist’s home Busy Still-Life pg 26

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Curatorial Statement

Ann Royer (b. 1933) is a beloved Cedar Rapids artist whose repertoire spans a diverse array of subjects and media. As she navigates the vast possibilities of creation, one wonders about the forces compelling her to make specific marks and pursue particular themes, patterns, and color. Throughout her career she has consistently returned to the caves of Lascaux and the significance of the need to create since the beginning of humanity. She keeps a selection of books on a table in her studio at all times. In my 8 years of visiting her, there’s always been one periodical, always open, presenting the images in the caves. This becomes the springboard for what I discovered next.

Inclinations focuses on the evolution of these bodies of work over periods of time and what compositions return to the forefront of ideation. This specific curation was sparked by a moment of revelation in her studio, where the familiarity of a composition on her easel mirrored an artwork from her archives –a 25 year span. This prompted me to investigate the cyclical nature of these expressions and how the potent imagery, held by the artist, works it’s way into new compositions by way of singular patterned elements, total composition, and recurrence of overt colors in specific subjects. On display are parallels drawn between new paintings and selections that span years, some, decades.

Moving through the exhibition space, pairs or couples are arranged to draw these throughlines and walls have been segmented to reflect the series of works that she paints. Ultimately, what is realized over time is an elegance to simplification. This can be seen through representational figures or flowers being concentrated to lines or a gesture, elements are shortened further by means of color blocking, and the quality of linework becoming the primary focus of the composition. She delves into the realm of the intangible and explores emotions, mostly joy, and entices the imagination. Royer’s process doesn’t revolve around reviewing her past creations. Rather, each work begins with a fresh slate driven by the innate push to make and be beholden to her inclinations.

Lauren Tucci, Gallery Director Gilded Pear Gallery

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