Happy New Year! I’m pleased to announce my first university solo show: Of the Earth opening at Holy Family University Art Gallery on January 18th through February 15th. I had so much fun putting this exhibition together! You can read more about it below. Please stop by and check it out if you’re in the Philadelphia area — and cheers to a happy and healthy 2023!
PRESS RELEASE
Holy Family University Art Gallery is pleased to present Of the Earth, a solo exhibition of recent works on paper by Philadelphia-based artist Samantha Sanders. Sanders’ works incorporate plant-based inks that she’s foraged and made with all-natural watercolor and collage. She explores themes of grief, environmental fragility, and her rural Pennsylvania upbringing.
The piece Of the Earth, which the exhibition is titled after, marks the beginning of Sanders' use of plant-based pigments. The exhibition was developed over the last two years, and each piece includes inks made from black walnuts, hickory nuts, goldenrod flowers and food waste, such as onion skins and avocado pits/skins. Sanders honors the land with her inks, marrying material with subject matter. She draws inspiration from the local wildlife that wander through her South Philly back-patio, like the opossum in As the Days Grow Shorter, and the pigeon in A Friendly Neighbor. A Glimpse Into My Garden captures a summer of first-time urban gardening for Sanders. A green pepper and cherry tomatoes emerge from a fiery orange background, representing abundant growth, while a bold dark-brown butterfly is in flight. Butterflies are a recurring icon in Sanders’ works. Concerned with the environmental threats pollinators face, Sanders calls attention to pollinators and their food sources. Don’t Let the Milkweed Die explores the relationship of the Monarch caterpillar and the milkweed plant; milkweed being the caterpillars' only food source. Monarch butterflies were recently listed as an Endangered Species, mainly due to habitat loss.
Crescent moons appear in Sanders' work, acting as an indicator of time and a source of light in the darkness. The works intermingle on the wall, unframed and exposed, creating an ecosystem all their own. Icons and motifs found in Pennsylvania German folk art punctuate much of Sanders’ works on paper. The butterflies in An Ode to Summer are inspired by the butterfly that can be found in the Birth and baptismal certificate for Elizabeth Sechler, d. 1820, which is included in the permanent collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Abstracted vegetal portals in Earth in My Hands, Of the Earth and After Midnight explore Sanders’ spiritual side. Trying to connect with those she’s lost, the portals bridge the gap between the world of the living and dead. Fish act as spirits, moving between worlds. Lamenting for lost loved ones and for the state of the natural world, Sanders’ painting practice holds onto hope, without forgetting the pain that comes with life as it moves forward.
Of the Earth asks the viewer to reflect on their relationship to the natural world around them. How can we enact positive environmental change in our homes, cities and backyards? Our neighbors are more than people; they are the plants and animals that share space with us daily. Sanders’ represents the reciprocal relationship between humankind and the environment through her painting practice, in hopes that the animals and plants she depicts will be here long after she’s gone.
