Sea Lily, Feather Star

I re-visited Anj Smith's fantastic exhibition in the Sara Hilden Art Museum. This is her first solo show in Finland. The name of the exhibition is Sea Lily, Feather Star. For Smith, Crinoidea have become a personal metaphor for painting. Crinoidea have been developing slowly, but remaining fundamentally unchanged. In her paintings Smith has addressed issues related to the fragility of identity and the complexity of gender. Flora and fauna are important topics for Smith, and she thinks there is no need for fantasy because nature is so amazing. Smith likes Giorgio Morandi's quote "nothing Is more abstract than reality".

In the photo is a detail of Anj Smith's work The Re-Wilding (2013). Her paintings are relative small, full of tiny details. Some of them painted with a brush that has only one hair! Smith's works are super interesting and it takes time to study them. 

Weather was a bit depressing today, because it rained. Snow we got yesterday is melting again.


0°C, cloudy and rainy