!
Cisterns and Wells Georgina Spengler
Samara Gallery is pleased to present Cisterns and Wells, a solo exhibition of new works by Georgina Spengler. In this body of work, the artist explores verses from poetry by GiorgosSeferis. Spengler’s paintings investigate what is not physically visible through words, creating visual emotion and personal understanding of poetry. Rachel Spence writes about Spengler’s work saying, “This experience of perpetual exile has acted to heighten her inner sense of landscape. “Certain lines keep running through my head,” she explains. “And I try to make the same feelings in my paintings as the words on the page.” In cycles such as “Cisterns and Wells” and “The Voices Circles”, she succeeds triumphantly. Working with linseed-rich oils beloved of the old masters, the silky, fathomless deliquescence of her surfaces is intensified by veils of colour applied with infinitessimal subtlety. Although the overall impression is of a Monet-like cascade of greens – tropical, emerald, olive, bottle, turquoise – there is also a shell pink that recalls Fragonard, a Caravaggesque, bitumen-dark black, yolk-yellows, ceramic blues and chalky whites that conjure up Vermeer and Rembrandt, an ecclesiastical amethyst that calls to mind the velvet robes of Veronese. Ultimately, however, Spengler’s vision is her own. If you have ever thrown a stone into a woodland pool as the sunlight falls through the leaves, or gazed upwards through the water after diving into a river on a summer day, her limpid, depthless waterfalls will resonate. Yet they also escape such concrete metaphors. For these are landscapes not only of the natural world, but also of the mind.” Georgina Spengler was born in Athens, Greece. She studied at the Boston University School of Fine Arts - Boston, MA, and at the Corcoran School of Art - Washington DC (BFA). She has been living in Rome since 1982.
"Cisterns and Wells V" Oil on panel 55.1” x 35.4”
!
"Where the World Darkens" Oil on panel 55.1” x 35.4”
!
“Cisterns and Wells IV” Oil on panel 55.1” x 35.4”!
"Drowning in the Voice’s Circles II" Oil on panel 55.1" x 25.5"
!
"Cisterns and Wells II" Oil on panel 55.1” x 35.4”
“Cisterns and Wells III” Oil on panel 55.1” x 35.4”
!
“Sleep Wrapped You in Green Leaves Like a Tree” Oil on panel 55.1” x 25.5”!
“Drowning in the Voice’s Circles I” Oil on panel 55.1” x 25.5”!
"A Little Farther I" Oil on panel 55.1” x 25.5”
!
"Those, Alone, Who Speak to Cisterns and Wells" Oil on panel 55.1” x 25.5”
"Seen, Turning My Head II" Oil on panel 55.1” x 25.5”
!
Mythistorema 15 Giorgos Seferis (Inspiration for works by Georgina Spengler)
Sleep wrapped you in green leaves like a tree you breathed like a tree in the quiet light in the limpid spring I looked at your face: eyelids closed, eyelashes brushing the water. In the soft grass my fingers found your fingers I held your pulse a moment and felt elsewhere your heart’s pain. Under the plane tree, near the water, among laurel sleep moved you and scattered you around me, near me, without my being able to touch the whole of you — one as you were with your silence; seeing your shadow grow and diminish, lose itself in the other shadows, in the other world that let you go yet held you back. The life that they gave us to live, we lived. Pity those who wait with such patience lost in the black laurel under the heavy plane trees and those, alone, who speak to cisterns and wells and drown in the voice’s circles. Pity the companion who shared our privation and our sweat and plunged into the sun like a crow beyond the ruins, without hope of enjoying our reward. Give us, outside sleep, serenity.
About Us SAMARA Gallery is located at Isabella Court at the intersection of Main and Isabella in Houston’s fast growing Midtown and less than a mile from Houston’s Museum District. SAMARA Gallery offers a wide range of fine contemporary art in various media by local national and international artists. We are devoted to presenting the finest work possible from established and emerging artists. Our Mission SAMARA Gallery is devoted to curating and exhibiting artwork of emerging and established artists through a program of exhibitions presenting contemporary art in drawing, painting, sculpture and photography. Our gallery is committed to help artists grow professionally by providing a venue for artistic freedom, artistic excellence and freedom of expression. Through exhibitions and innovative marketing, we will help in placing our artists work in a wide range of private and public collections. SAMARA Gallery is dedicated to promoting visual art by engaging with local educational institutions, various non-profit organizations and collectors to enrich the artistic and intellectual climate of the Houston community.
!
,07 0 7
7 73
@ 2
@ @02@
7
.
1 3 090 0 0 3
090 0 0 3
2 9
3907 0@ 2 9