There have always been two kinds of arcadia: shaggy and smooth; dark and light; a place of bucolic leisure and a place of primitive panic.
                     — Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory (1995)

Spanierman Modern is pleased to announce the opening on March 29, 2007 of Meghan Gerety: American Arcadia, an exhibition presenting a series of large drawings in graphite on watercolor paper that are based on photographs, both borrowed and personal, and explore the theme of our visions of arcadia through the ages.

Through a physically demanding working method, in which line and shape take on a powerful life of their own, Gerety creates works that elicit our awareness of how we project our fantasies as well as our darkest horrors onto the landscape around us to suit our psychological needs. Her images—in which line and shape embody the physicality of resistance, protest, life, and transcendence—reflect on the way that, from the arcadia of ancient Greece to Olmsted’s Central Park, to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago, arcadian notions have evolved with our cultural desires and fears.

Gerety’s works also explore the ways in which throughout human history, trees and forests have had multiple meanings, representing heroic nationalism, family, royalty, cultural strength, wealth, life, resurrection, death, and rebirth. According to the artist: “Trees have been both venerated and exploited, used for both protection and propaganda. They have been home to both the ‘enemy’ and horror as well as a sanctuary and sacred eden on the path to salvation. The forest itself has served as an allegory for the path of human life; it has served as church, promised land, and salvation. In almost every spiritual tradition the tree functions as a symbol of renewal: in the ‘vegetable theology’ of the Christian Tree of Life and the two trees in the Garden of Eden.”

In her powerful yet contemplative drawings, Gerety attempts to embed the intense energy of process and the power of transcendence, while re-imagining the history of place, based on her own connection with the landscape.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Gerety studied at the Atelier Clouet, Paris, and received her B.F.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University. She has exhibited her work at Engholm Engelhorn Gallery, Vienna; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Low Gallery, Los Angeles, and White Columns, New York. This is her first exhibition at Spanierman Modern.