Verdant Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Austin artist Hunter Ash. Valleys Made High is an abstract series that offers spaces of comfort and wonder. Inspired by the imagery in Isaiah 40, each painting hints at a natural landscape as both something we inhabit and something continually changing. Valleys rise. Mountains are made low. Grass withers and flowers fade. What appears permanent, reveals itself to be temporary; giving hints at a natural world that may feel lasting, although not eternal. We see the mystery and sense of hope in spaces of the natural world, however in all their beauty they point to something greater. Ash translates these ideas through fractured, abstracted landscapes in which familiar forms emerge without fully resolving into something literal, resulting in spaces remembered rather than observed.
Through layered strokes of oil paint, poured acrylic, oil stick and pallet knife marks, each piece tells a layered story of hope beyond what’s visible. The work considers how we groan for a more whole, perfected reality and imagines what that may one day be.
Rather than offering resolution, these paintings hold space for the viewer to contemplate and consider the beauty of their own personal stories that are still incomplete. Their whimsical depiction of transitional natural elements suggests that our vision is necessarily partial, and that comfort can be found in trusting there is more to the story than we are able to see.