Artist Anne Seelbach at Stamford’s PMW
Gallery
By Carolee Ross
 |
| Troubled Waters by Anne Seelbach oil on canvas, 26x26" framed |
Anne
Seelbach’s new series of works, “Troubled Waters,” on exhibit at PMW Gallery,
Stamford, Connecticut, are a protest against the despoiling of the environment.
It’s not the typical protest art,
brewed tough and bitter and aggressively obvious in the execution. Instead,
Seelbach’s work whispers her message in subtle colors and textures and at
first, the viewer is enchanted by the multiplicity of the venues within the
works.
What is, and
always has been, the function of art and artist? Perhaps art’s deepest impulses
are rooted in a desire to clarify and reflect the historical space in which we
exist. These artists are mirrors of their society and their times; they express
the anxieties of their age in a world beset by more ills than Job could have
envisioned.
The artist
writes in a clarifying statement: “My work addresses the pollution that is in
many of our water systems. Toxic chemicals and industrial waste contaminate
streams, lakes, bays and oceans. The “Troubled Waters” paintings reflect this
conflict between the laws of nature and artificial attempts to control the environment.
Gaskets and other mechanical shapes are incorporated into the paintings, representing
human presence and industrial waste. Debris crowds the waters. Fish mutate into
imaginary forms. A change is taking place as nature reacts to this disruption.”
 |
| Troubled Waters #13 by Anne Seelbach oil on canvas 26 x26 Framed |
Inherent in
the rhythmic beauty of Anne Seelbach’s piece are some interesting
contradictions. Wresting textural effects from the ringed loops that not only
hold six-packs of beer and soda together but choke sea creatures to death, she
assigns them new life as sculptural forms, dissociating them from their
original context and consecrating them
as art.
 |
| Troubled Waters #8 by Anne Seelbach oil on canvas, 36x40" framed |
Seelbach
continues: “I am interested in the tension between representation and
abstraction; perspective drawing versus free-form washes and geometric shapes
versus atmospheric color fields. I use these oppositions to create a tension
between three-dimensional illusion and a flattening of space.
Gestural brushwork and rich colors are dominant. Layered paint creates subtle
colors and
textures.”
The Artist’s Background
Anne Seelbach received a BA from New York University and an MFA
from Hunter College, City
University of New York. She was a Painting Fellow at the Radcliffe (Bunting)
Institute, Harvard
University. She has developed her work at the MacDowell Colony, Triangle
Artists’ Workshop,
the Griffis Art Center, New London, Connecticut and I-Park, East Haddam, Connecticut.
International art residencies include the Centrum Frans Masereel, Kasterlee,
Belgium, Frauenmuseum, Bonn,
Germany, and the Griffis-Orpheus Foundations’ artist exchange program in Sofia,
Bulgaria.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Newark Museum NJ, Lyman Allyn Museum CT and the Frauenmuseum, Bonn, Germany. She is also represented in many corporate collections including: Pfizer Inc., Prudential Insurance and XTO Energy as well as private collections in the United States and Europe.
Artist’s Walk and Talk
Anne
Seelbach will give an artist’s Walk and Talk Sunday, June 17 at noon at PMW
Gallery, 530 Roxbury Road, Stamford, Connecticut, 06902. Call 203 322 5427.
There is no fee, but it is suggested that you call ahead to confirm your
attendance.
 |
| Trouble Waters series: Cut-out #7 26.75 x 16.25 unframed, tempera on paper |
To
learn more about Anne Seelbach’s artworks, visit her website at www.anneseelbach.com.
