ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

undertow is about energy: how it moves, vibrates, and impacts one’s body and lived experience. The paintings featured in the exhibition come from years of deep focus on abstraction as a language to convey energetic movement and make visual the physics of emotion and intuition. What began as pure abstraction led to a return of the body itself showing up in the paintings - first as a sparsely indicated torso and then as a more corporeal figure or body part. Gandolf explores somatic experiences through the use of vibrating colors and geometric shapes which resonate beyond the edges of her panels.

ABOUT JESSICA GANDOLF

Born and raised in New York City, Jessica Gandolf has lived in Portland for 30 years. She received her BA from Oberlin College and her MFA from Brooklyn College where she studied with Lois Dodd and Lee Bontecou. She received an NEA Regional Fellowship in Painting in 1994. She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell (twice) and at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Hewnoaks and Cummington Community for the Arts. She has been a Lecturer at Bowdoin College and Bates College. She has exhibited across the country and at several venues internationally.

An accompanying selection of novels and nonfiction texts chosen by Jessica Gandolf is available at Back Cove Books in Portland, Maine.