EVA ISAKSEN | DRAWN TO LINE
Warm Mist, collage on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
Foster/White presents, Drawn to Line, a collection of new works by Eva Isaksen. At the heart of Isaksen’s practice is a belief in art as an evolving process that mirrors the cycles of nature. As a dedicated gardener, she draws inspiration from organic forms, seasonal rhythms, land and water, sky, and continual growth. Isaksen takes this inspiration from the constant redesign and regeneration, and translates her observations to her work.
Poem For Winter, collage on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
From my studio, I look out onto my garden. In the summer months it explodes with color, a constant wonder and inspiration. My work has often grown from the abundance of color I see there.
In this recent series, it is not only color that informs my work. It is still the garden that inspires, as it lays dormant in winter. I have been studying the lines of plants as they die back and wait for the next growing season; muted earthy tones of gray and beige; seed pods on fragile dried stems; fragmented lines and sparse gestures.
These observations serve as a starting point rather than a subject to be depicted. I borrow the lines and develop them into complex drawings on canvas. Lines are layered, intersecting and generating new lines, — unexpected drawings surprise me as they emerge. Chaos and order coexist.
The thin papers I use are printed, painted and drawn on, then cut, rearranged and collaged onto canvas. By following what unfolds organically, the work gradually becomes its own universe with its own language.
In a very unsettling and turmoiled world, my art practice is my solace. — Eva Isaksen
Dreams of Turquoise Sea, collage on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
Isaksen holds an MFA in Painting from Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, as well as a BFA from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD. Isaksen studied at the Nordland School of Arts and Crafts, Narvik, Norway. Her artwork has exhibited internationally, including at Galleri G. Guddal, Rosendal, Norway; Galleri Bodøgaard, Bodø, Norway; US Embassy, Brussels, Belgium; and Museo de los Pintores Oaxaquenos, Oaxaca, Mexico. Isaksen has shown her work extensively across North America. Most recently, Isaksen had a solo exhibition at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, WA.