David Onri Anderson Rapture May 27–July 8, 2023
Institute 193 is pleased to present Rapture, a series of recent paintings by David Onri Anderson. Made over the past six months, this body of work marks a creative departure from the artist’s established style. Known for his meticulously planned psychedelic abstractions and still lifes, here Anderson employs the landscape in an intuition-led mapping of the unconscious. The paintings of Rapture further respond to a disappearing natural world. Simple geometries transform into a place for reflection, an ambient realm humming with ancient life. Anderson describes the process of making as a kind of prayer, an invitation to relinquish control and move with the land:
“As I am painting, I often realize that I may have been to that place before—either in the past or in a dream—and there is something there familiar and yet elusive. As urban areas increase and wild land becomes more rare, I crave open spaces, freshness, extreme oldness, and mysterious wilderness. My paintings search for a place to rest, to commune with the Earth, somewhere that hasn’t yet been colonized and overly occupied. Atmosphere, blades of grass, and tiny feathers from birds flying by find their way into my landscapes. Here is a chance for a fresh start with the land––perhaps we can tread more lightly, and take in beauty without adding what is not necessary.”
Anderson’s paradise is rich and playful: planes of color swell and squeeze, abrupt lines carve out vivid forms, seemingly solid elements overlap and merge. The joyful palette intensifies this fantastical terrain with hot pinks and sharp greens, washing smooth skies and water in pure blues. Beginning with acrylic on canvas, the artist often incorporates wild flower dyes, walnut ink, and dirt, challenging notions of a divide between the natural and artificial. The scenes themselves suggest duality, combining literal elements with symbolic motifs. Rays of light, pathways, and tree branches allude to growth and movement; floating islands and landmarks offer a pause, altars for reflection. Anderson’s Rapture gestures to nature’s sublime, a profound joy born from communion with the Earth. At the core of his practice is an awareness of the interconnectivity of all things, a sense of greater meaning both in life and death.
David Onri Anderson is a Tennessee-born French-Algerian Jewish artist, musician, and curator. He graduated from Watkins College of Art in Nashville with the Anny Gowa Purchase Award in 2016. He has had solo exhibitions at Patrick Painter Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Blaa Galleri (Copenhagen, DK), Harpy Gallery (Rutherford, NJ), David Lusk Gallery (Nashville, TN), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), among others. In 2020 he published a book of drawings with Zürich-based artist book company, Nieves. His work has been reviewed, exhibited and collected internationally with works in permanent collections including the Soho House in Los Angeles, CA and Nashville, TN, The Joseph Hotel (Nashville, TN), and the Metro Arts Library (Nashville, TN), amongst others. Anderson is the founder and curator of an artist-run space called Electric Shed Gallery in Nashville, TN (2018-present). His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Artnet, BURNAWAY, and DailyLazy, among others.