Sarah McEneaney

January 24 - April 4, 2004

 
Sarah McEneaney
Wissahickon, 2000, Egg tempera on wood, 24 x 24 inches, Private Collection Courtesy Gallery Schlesinger, NY.
 
McEneaney's paintings draw us into her personal world with an engaging combination of intimacy, directness, and imagination. In her rich autobiographical paintings, every detail is accounted for, but the work itself is as flat, fantastic and miniaturist as the Persian, Indian and Early Renaissance art that inspires her. Florine Stettheimer, Reginald Marsh, and Frida Kahlo come to mind, as other artists who have narrated their own lives and in the process, depicted life conducted in and around the studio. "I paint about my life but these are not solely my stories. When art is genuinely personal it is also universal," she says.


Sarah McEneaney
SPV, 2002, Egg tempera on wood, 10 x 8 inches
 
Working primarily in egg tempera, McEneaney's painting process is labor-intensive and does not permit frequent overpainting or corrections. She prepares her own paint from egg yolk and powdered pigment, and mixes her gesso (background surface) from powdered limestone and rabbit-skin glue. The paintings, built in layers, bear the tactility and intimacy of handcrafted objects.

“Through strong color and by repeating details that often accumulate into abstract passages, Ms. McEneaney makes every centimeter of canvas count.” Roberta Smith, New York Times

The ICA exhibition is comprised of approximately 60 works from 1986 to the present including panel paintings, works on paper and sculpture. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with an extended essay by exhibition curator Ingrid Schaffner and a series of short, close readings of specific paintings by various authors including the creative non-fiction writer Rob Nixon, the critic and artist Eileen Neff, and the poet Lisa Sewell.


Sarah McEneaney
Meteor Shower, 2002, Egg tempera on wood, 48 x 60 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Schlesinger

McEneaney, 48, has been living and painting in Philadelphia since 1973, when she enrolled in the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) and the city features prominently in her work. Since 1980 she has lived in a converted Chinatown area carriage house that serves as her home and studio. Her paintings are in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and other public, private, and corporate collections. She is a recipient of a Leeway Foundation Grant (2003), a Pew Fellowship Grant (1993) and Yaddo Fellowships (1995, 1997), among others.

ICA acknowledges the generous primary sponsorship of Barbara B. & Theodore R. Aronson for this exhibition. We are also grateful for the support of Elaine & Melvin Finkelstein, Frances & Bayard Storey, and Pew Fellowships in the Arts, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by the University of the Arts. Additional funding has been provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation Inc., The William Penn Foundation, the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art, friends and members of ICA, and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of 12/02/03.)

The exhibition catalog was funded by the artist through the generous assistance of the Independence Foundation and The Leeway Foundation with additional support from: Linda Lee Alter, Anita Friedman Fine Arts Ltd.; Cheryl & William Geffon; Susan & Marc Howard; Jules & Connie Kay; SKR, Inc./Franklin Riehlin Fine Art and Melissa Franklin & Wainwright A. Ballard. (Information complete as of 12/02/03.)