Many thanks to Big Red & Shiny for their review of “Mira Cantor: Meltwater”!
Slippery Slope — oil on canvas, 48 x 36″, 2012
From the review:
“‘Meltwater’ and Cantor’s previous series [‘Silver Lake’ (2005), and ‘White Paintings’ (2008)] reveal her kinship to American landscape painters. Thomas Cole (1801-1848) created a native landscape vision which emphasized America’s unique natural heritage.5 In The Course of Empire (1832), Cole interpreted the extinction of glorious nations. Cole described Old Age in the Voyage of Life cycle (1840): ‘The stream of life has now reached the Ocean to which all life is tending.’6 With her passionate concern for sustainable life, Cantor continues in Cole’s legacy of cherishing the preciousness of nature. Cantor says that, in addition to the weather, she also thinks about death, which we cannot escape. ‘I want to know my world and alert people to it… And change will happen. The ice is melting. In a painting I can stop time.’7 The monumentality of Cantor’s minimalist forms is awe inspiring. The technical aspects of her painting style make palpable the slow transformation of our planet’s environment. A dynamic synergy between Cantor’s sweeping gestures, her control of the defined edges, and the way she allows the paint to function independently are what make the Meltwater series so compelling and demanding. When confronted with her work, we are immediately engaged with the profound implications of what we see.”
Read the full article here.
“Mira Cantor: Meltwater” will be on view through Sunday, December 29. Gallery hours are Wed–Sun 12–5. In addition there will be special Public Relations hours with Deborah Davidson on Tuesday, December 24, 2–4 p.m. NOTE: the gallery will be closed Wednesday, December 25.
