Heather Stivison, an artist previously known for works that explore the intersection of environmental science and visual art in her immersive paintings of the ocean, air, and sky now takes on the timely issue of borders, displacement and the yearning for home. Heather Stivison: Borders and Boundaries opens on June 11 at Pleiades Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 304. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 12-6 p.m.

The fourteen, narrative works in the exhibition are a tapestry of drawings, found objects, textiles, and paintings all emerging from the viewpoint of a woman and mother. Stivison states that the 48” x 97” oil painting entitled Oil Sketch: Her Inheritance, is the key to the entire series. Intent faces that are partially obscured by bars and barriers fill more than half the canvas. Ominous suggestions of drones fly overhead, while the central figure, an infant girl sitting on coils of razor wire reaches up as if to catch a drone in her hand. Stivison asks, “What kind of world are we leaving to our children?”

The personal authenticity of her question ripples through all the works. She prods and pokes at her own comfortable life and that of her peers. A suburban real estate survey serves as background to a drawing of the artist’s own white picket fence, that on close inspection reveals tiny red letters stating “not my problem.” In another piece, a loosely drawn image of take-out coffee cups entitled Out of Sight, Out of Mind, obscures a similar message about displaced families in Ukraine.

Themes of losing one’s home, of remembering a home, of yearnings for homes overlay her narratives of migration over centuries. With some works referencing the early 1900s, Stivison notes that today’s problems are not new ones. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

In an unusual twist for a Chelsea art exhibition, Stivison will engage in a dialogue with award-winning author and historian Tyler Anbinder in a discussion of City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York, in the gallery at 3:30 pm on Saturday, June 15.

Reaching across artistic disciplines, the artist has invited writers to use the works on view as inspiration for original new poetry. A poetry reading of selected works from this project will take place on Saturday, July 6 at 2 pm.

Stivison has exhibited from coast to coast in the United States and in juried shows in Asia and Europe. This is her second New York solo exhibition. For more information about the artist and her work, visit https://www.heatherstivisonart.com/

547 West 27th St, Suite 304 Map
973-479-9728