TERRY
EKASALA
Photo by Zack Ekasala
In Terry Ekasala's abstract paintings, perceivable subjects - figures, landscapes, interiors, objects - are evoked, yet never fully revealed. This ambiguity of form, rendered through a deep understanding of the narrative and haptic power of translucently rendered color, suspends the image somewhere between abstract composition and storytelling, creating interior, psychological spaces evoking
memory and place.
— Chrissie Isles, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art,
ARTIST BIO
Ekasala was born and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and studied at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1983, she set up her first studio in Miami Beach. She became a member of the Artifacts Art Group, which staged weekly events at Miami’s Fire & Ice nightclub. In 1987, Ekasala moved to Paris, where she became part of a diverse artistic community that organized the first artist squat to become legal in Paris. In 2001, Ekasala moved to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Today, she resides with her family in West Burke, Vermont. Ekasala’s work has been exhibited at numerous institutions around the world, including the Hall Art Foundation in Reading, Vermont; Metalstone Gallery in New York City; PIERMARQ* in Sydney, Australia; and Schonfeld Gallery in Brussels. Her work is on view at Bundy Modern in Waitsfield, Vermont, in “Nor’easter: Terry Ekasala, Rick Harlow, Craig Stockwell” (July 1–September 3, 2023.)
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are never thought up in advance. I have worked primarily with oils on linen up until several years ago when I began to work with the more immediate acrylic on paper. I alternate between these two mediums often in the same day. This has brought much more to my practice. I feel less restraint, freer to experiment, always looking for new approaches to bringing an image out. If we have to fit ourselves into a category I would say I am an intuitive painter, as I really don’t prepare a work with sketches or even a general subject beforehand. For years I worked, for the most part, abstract until this introduction of acrylic and paper. Suddenly and surprisingly figures or figurative images began to appear! At first I felt I was betraying the abstract painter that I considered myself to be, it was a funny turning point, to accept, allow and even laugh at my own self imposed limitations! In a way, everything matters, everything, everyday things go into my paintings.
“We talk about Art as we talk about Nature. And both have almost unlimited signification. To utter one or the other of these words - Nature, Art - is an evocation. It means extracting an ideal from the depths. It means drawing back one of the two great curtains of divine profundity”
William Shakespeare
{translation: John Doherty} Victor Hugo
PORTFOLIO
