September 23, 2003 – December 31, 2002 Prilla Smith Brackett Uncertain Balance; 1995 - 2002

Depicting subjects as distant from one another as the old growth forests of New England and the panoramas of Tanzania, Prilla Smith Brackett’s evocative landscapes document our interaction with the world around us. Jarring juxtapositions combine with visual echoes in elegant and complex images that describe our complex relationship with the natural landscape.

Remnants: Communion #11
30” x 60”
collaged paper, graphite, charcoal, acrylic, oil on canvas
1997

Brackett is the rare environmentalist who eschews preaching, confrontation, sentimentality, or dire predictions. Her carefully composed works never tell use what to do, but make us fully aware that our actions have consequences.

Remnants: Communion #13
42’ x 120”
oil on collaged canas on canvas
1997-1998

Brackett employs fragmentation to depict a world of interconnectedness, where the “natural” and the “human” continuously engage. Her juxtapositions of media, of urban against wild, and the sectioning of single works among multiple canvases, reveal meticulously composed wholes that emphasize connections.

Acrylic wash, graphite, conte, charcoal, collaged paper on paper 1997

Uncertain Balance brings together works from many series and groups completed by Brackett over the last seven years, reflecting the development of her creative technique and environmental message.

Early monochromatic drawings of old growth forests in the Old Growth in the White Mountains and Big Reed Reserve works are stripped of color to suggest what is lost when, as the artist states, “We see resource, recreation, opportunity where we once saw beauty.”

Remnants: Old Growth in the White Mountains #1 Graphite, conte, charcoal and collaged paper on paper 1995

The relatively subtle separations of these works gives way in the Communion series to bold fragmentation of both palette and imagery, as the urban intrudes upon the pristine. In Silent Striving, a series of canvases conceived of and composed as a single work, intimate vignettes, when taken together, tell an ageless story of ebb and flow between human construction and trees. In paintings inspired by a trip to Tanzania, the landscape speaks for itself, in panoramas that capture the grandeur of the seemingly pristine landscape, yet might reveal in the foreground a land overgrazed and scarred by the hooves of cattle.

Silent Striving #3 Oil on board 1998

On the Edge of the Great Rift #2 Oil on canvas 2001

In her most recent series, Linkage, Brackett returns to trees, urban and natural, juxtaposed. The conflicts depicted in earlier works are no longer visible; in fact simple architectural elements actually enhance the form of the trees. Of these works, Brackett has said, "With both… interruption and my color choices I hope to convey a sense of shared existence between the built environment and the natural world. There are both visual and conceptual connections between the two images. If we damage one, we impact the other."

Linkage #9
Oil on canvas
2002

Brackett’s environmental massage works with subtlety and grace. Brackett use fragmented landscapes not as descriptors of place, but as provocateurs, stimulating us to explore the ways in which interact with our environment.

Meet the artist at a reception on Sunday, October 20, from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. in the gallery.

R.S.V.P. for the reception at arts@nas.edu or (202)334-3104

Please join us at 3:00 p.m. for a free concert by the American String Quartet.

Download a PDF of the brochure for this exhibition (Adobe Acrobat required)

Prilla Smith Brackett’s Website