Nina Elder’s paintings are objective contemplations of fracking structures, hydroelectric dams, telecommunication towers, airports and military bases. Painted in a style that is as coolly engineered as the industry that they represent, this disarmingly beautiful body of work quietly poses questions of human industriousness and our dominion over natural landscapes.
About the artist: Nina Elder is a painter, drawer, construction worker, and farmer. She grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico where she cultivated a curiosity about gravel pits, mines, and lumber mills. Her work examines the visual evidence of land use in the American West and its cycles of production, consumption, and waste. After earning her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, Nina returned to northern New Mexico where she co-founded an off-the-grid artist residency program called PLAND: Practice Liberating Art through Necessary Dislocation. Through paintings, drawings, and installations, she endeavors to illuminate that the contemporary landscape is the physical manifestation of modern needs, economies, policies, and powers. Nina’s work is exhibited and collected nationally, and has been included in publications such as Art in America and New American Paintings.
Exhibition Dates: September 6 – October 25, 2013 | Opening Reception: Friday, September 6th, 2013 (5-8pm)