Lauren Ari
Searching for Meaning
1914 Funk and Wagnell’s dictionary series
Lauren Ari begins with an original page removed from a 1914 Funk and Wagnell’s dictionary as the base for her whimsical paintings. Ari pulls images, meanings, inspirations and symbolic gravity from the pages to create wild, playful, dark and visionary paintings.
Dates
August 15 - October 16, 2022
Artists
Lauren Ari
Searching for Meaning, 1914 Funk and Wagnell’s dictionary series
Lauren Ari works in many mediums but the foundation of her art is in drawing and storytelling. When working, she rarely has a finished piece in mind, but more an interest in seeing where the process of making will lead. Although the work is personal it taps into the universal.
Lauren Ari
Spadefoot Spasm
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
Lauren Ari
Nerved Nest in Newel
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
The artist is searching for meaning – tearing the dictionary pages out, reconfiguring them, and glueing the pages together in sets of four to give herself a paper canvas of about 2 feet by three feet to paint. As she paints, she collaborate with the dictionary, using the words and images to inspire her. Painting over some parts to obscure, highlighting others and bringing new meaning.
Lauren Ari
Searching for Meaning, 1914 Funk and Wagnell’s dictionary series
Lauren Ari
The legend of leda
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
Lauren Ari
Between two
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
She approaches her work with curiosity and a direct quality of line that has aliveness.
Lauren Ari
Bottom of the Bottling
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
Lauren Ari
The Cranes Swinging Cradle
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
Lauren Ari reflects on how we relate to one each other when we are so different or similar.
“The dictionary is so different from the way I am. It is factual, organized and labored where I am direct, intuitive and non- linear”.
“What relationship do we have with objects and words and creatures that swirl around us”?
Lauren Ari
Cousins of Eclecticism
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
Lauren Ari
Ale Wife in Alexandria
acrylic on dictionary paper
23″ × 17″
Lauren Ari
Searching for Meaning, 1914 Funk and Wagnell’s dictionary series
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