Audra Weaser, “Golden Shores,” acrylic, plaster paint and metallic pigments on panel, 60 x 60 in.
The abstract paintings of Los Angeles artist Audra Weaser, now on exhibit at Park City’s Julie Nester Gallery, bring to life an interplay of introspection and the subtle dance of nature. Due to a blending of acrylics and metallic elements, the dozen canvases shimmer with an internal light, reminiscent of reflective surfaces found in natural settings such as rivers or the quiet corners of forests.
Each piece in the series suggests a different aspect of nature’s serene moments. In one, cool hues merge with vertical strokes that call to mind vegetation swaying at the water’s edge, partially obscured by a tranquil fog. Another canvas is washed in a golden glow, where the interjection of white seems to mimic sunlight playing upon water’s surface, broken only by the softest ripples. The physical crafting of these pieces, through a process that includes sanding down layers of paint, imparts a sense of dimension that one might not expect from a flat canvas. The paintings stand as a threshold to the unexplored, marked by expanses of color and interrupted by swathes of white. These interruptions in the color fields are like visual pauses, spaces for the mind to wander into and find something new each time.
Audra Weaser, “Breakwater,” acrylic, plaster paint and metallic pigments on panel, 40 x 60 in.
Audra Weaser, “Night Tides,” acrylic, plaster paint and metallic pigments on panel, 46 x 82 in.
Weaser’s work is successful because it anchors the viewer in the here and now. The interplay of light and its reflections is not just a visual splendor but a philosophical invitation to embrace the fleeting nature of our immediate experiences. The artworks seem to pulse with a gentle rhythm, urging onlookers to find stillness within themselves. Audra’s work is an ode to the beauty of the transient, to the revelations that light can bring, and to the personal horizons that expand with each moment of contemplation.
Audra Weaser: Present Light, Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, through Mar. 21
The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.
Categories: Exhibition Reviews | Visual Arts
A lovely, poetic review that brings Audra Weaser’s work to the reader powerfully. Now, I want to see it live and large. I so wish Julie Nester would open a companion gallery in Salt Lake City, saving a big drive up the mountain for cultural reasons alone. I know the big bucks are with the skiers during the season in Park City (and I’m sure not a likely buyer), but there are buyers down here and plenty of lookers who might surprise Nester on occasion. Sigh.
Arts movements are not objective facts, but felt experiences. Thus we who teach or write about art will find ourselves reporting our feelings when, for instance, we see some sympathetic link between an historical moment and work in the gallery today. Audra Weaser’s art is certainly abstract, and Shawn Rossiter’s explication of its qualities is, as usual, excellently observed and revealed. However, for me it also strongly suggests Impressionism, in that the play of light and color reflected on or through water suggests the effects of starlight and rainfall. Such effects may not have been apparent to 19th century eyes not yet informed by motion pictures and extremes of focus to come, but I think it worthy to add it to their visual canon.