Natural State

Jenny KikerEvan Sahlman

March 1st  – April 14th, 2019

Natural State features two south Florida artists creating rich imagery highlighting the intricacies of the life of plants and people. Jenny Kiker produces delicate and rich tonal paintings of the foliage, leaves, plants, and natural patterns that she surrounds herself with. Evan Sahlman’s paintings similarly showcase foliage as a main subject. In addition to the plant portraits, Evan also explores portraits of people. A few pieces show the person alone in the composition, but most combine plant forms into the same image. Thus, figure and foliage coexist as one subject.

Coming together in this Exhibition, both artist’s exploration of life forms flows between the realistic, to the exaggerated, to the abstract. The rich tonal colors of earth, skin, and plant life fill the gallery with the essence of these subjects in their Natural State.

 

Jenny Kiker is an emerging artist living and working in South Florida. Graduating with an Illustration major and Painting minor from Savannah College of Art & Design, she is drawn to shapes and color palettes with an affinity to nature. Her open-ended work leaves the viewer connected without striving for a conclusion. Her inspiration comes from naturalist simplistic experiences and evolves into multi layered rich work with touches of abstraction by way of process, which she welcomes and exaggerates.

 

Evan Sahlman is an up and coming artist based out of West Palm Beach. Originally focused on sculpture and ceramics, Evan has pushed to train himself on a broader scale in the world of painting, often mixing of oil and acrylic with graphite and raw materials. Evan pushes the boundaries of representational art as he integrates local plant life and color. His contemporary interpretation of environment and form can be seen in his vibrant interaction of stroke and expression.

READ BOCA MAGAZINE’S FEATURED ARTICLE ON NATURAL STATE