Susan Eley Fine Art is pleased to present Space of Belonging, a solo show featuring new paintings by Angela A’Court. The exhibition opens on Thursday, November 14 with a reception from 6-8 pm, and remains on view through December 20. Space of Belonging is comprised of pastel paintings and a series of mixed media prints, all produced within the last two years.

A’Court first exhibited with SEFA in the three-person show, Finding Arcadia (2008). Subsequently, she has participated in numerous group shows and art fairs in the UK, US and Canada. Of note was her 2016 solo exhibition at SEFA, The Poetry of Mending.

A’Court begins each painting with a broad, color plane—red, blue, pink or yellow—which acts as a table for the artist’s still life vocabulary. This practice allows her to contain the narrative and create intimate settings, with each empty vessel, cup, or vase of flowers in its place. One feels that if an object were removed, the painting might topple. A sort of kinesthetic synergy between the objects holds the pieces together as a consummate whole.

A’Court continues to paint from memories and reflections from recent sojourns abroad, most notably from her year and a half living in Tokyo (2014-2016) and recently a trip to Amsterdam last Fall.

In the painting which gives the exhibition its title, a gathering of pale blue Japanese sake cups sit astride one another, against a fire engine red background. An unusual double decker coffee pot, inspired by a visit to a Dutch friend’s home, takes center stage left. At the top of the composition is a pitcher of grey silver foliage (Jacobaea Maritima) whose branches spray across the surface.

The subtlety and delicacy of Japanese flower arranging, called Ikebana, comes into play as A’Court arranges her own plants and flowers in vases and pots. Many of the vessels she paints are direct representations of objects with which she returned to the US.

Jordaan is a painterly reminiscence of a visit to a historic home in Amsterdam, complete with two stools and a table, laden with artfully arranged objects.

A’Court’s mixed media prints often examine single features—one stalk, one cup¬¬—and as such, lend themselves to a more abstract representation, although they are works unto themselves. The monoprints can be executed more swiftly than the pastels, the latter require many layers of pastel to achieve the rich accumulation of colors and textured surfaces.