HANNAH SECORD WADE
Base Tan / Stagecraft
May 3 – 25, 2024
Hannah Secord Wade paints lushly layered, imaginary landscapes that transport viewers to her fictive worlds. Working from representation to abstraction and back again, a process of containment and release she refers to as "representation being eaten by abstraction," her imagery is built slowly over time. "My paintings always begin with a drawing," she says, "and I have a steady stream of ideas which I sketch out digitally. From this base of sketches, I wait to see which image will keep returning to my mind, and decide which feels the most urgent." She works in series united by a common color palette that lends a shared sense of place and tone to the individual works, creating a "surround sound" of color. Her most recent series, Base Tan, is set on an abandoned beach resort on Mars, an absurdist twist on "extreme escapism" amid our planetary crises.
Wade received her MA Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, and her BFA from Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. She has been a resident artist at Arteles Creative Center, Finland; Open Wabi, OH; and the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, NY. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, in London and Paris. It is in the permanent collections of the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Portland Museum of Art (gift of the Alex Katz Foundation). After living in Brooklyn, NY, for several years, she now lives and works in Woolwich, ME.
My work depicts a continuous cycle of containment and release, in a series of failed attempts to gain control. Using landscape as a primary focus, the process begins with a gathering of plants, animals, and everyday objects. These elements are pushed into piles, stuffed into containers, or guarded by beings. As the works progress, these collections are slowly washed away, and later rebuilt. Each piece depicts an action, as land is moved and shifted, contained and then cleansed.
The gathering period is an effort to organize my surroundings, and create a sense of stability. The cleansing phase is an acknowledgement of the futility of this attempt, and clears space for the process to begin again. I view my work as representation being eaten by abstraction, as objects are defined and obscured, formed and erased.
Referencing a theatrical play, the Interlude series is set in a dark world with a dual nature. Darkness here is both a terrifying unknown, and the easiest place to hide. The works are an attempt to find an area of safety, in a place where it doesn’t exist.
