Sarah Esme Harrison

Press Release

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery is pleased to present a project space exhibition of plein air wedge paintings by Sarah Esme Harrison. Sloping off the wall with a slight protrusion, the five, oil on wood panel paintings on view each depict a layered, distinctly human account of nature. The artist begins each composition outside, stationed in front of individual or clustered trees, capturing an impression of the environment around her and a particular time of year. Once back in her studio, she then paints over the foliage, caging the image behind wrought iron gates.

For Harrison, the gate signifies extraction and ornamentation; metals mined from the earth wrought into a foliated mimicry of the natural world. Both accentuating and barricading the plein air painting, the artist’s gates wrap beyond the frontal surface of each work, spreading like branches and vines onto the wedged sides of each panel. The wrapping of the painted surface makes it impossible to view or know the entire painting at once. When viewed from an angle, August Gate (2021), for example, reads clearly as an object, an embellished vision of cultivated nature and beauty.

Sarah Esme Harrison (b. 1990, New York, NY) received her MFA from Yale University in 2017 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited in solo and group presentations at The Valley, Taos, NM (2021); Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO (2018); 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (2017); Downstairs Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Tate 2, Providence, RI (2015) and Motel, Brooklyn, NY (2015), among others.