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In Autumn, I am the color of Mahogany
Drawings and prints by Eleanor Neal
March 27 - April 30, 2022
at the Cross-Pollination Art Lab Gallery in Atlanta
Eleanor Neal's drawings and prints explore abstraction and its connection to myths and Southern stories, where identity and nature intersect. Inspired by Spanish moss, water, and historical stories of powerful women, she communicates stories of survival, isolation, and empowerment.
Artist Statement
The artwork I create speaks to my interest in memories and place, where identity and nature intersect. I explore abstraction and its connection to myths and Southern stories. Within a web of entanglement of lines, I communicate stories of survival, isolation, and empowerment. Inspiration comes from nature; Spanish moss which lives on the trees along the Georgia Sea Coast. It holds water, which gives it life. Sometimes I feel present, sometimes not. Textured, sculptured, colorful beeswax paper of organic shapes echo water and form.
I'm interested in women's voices from historical places like the Georgia Sea Islands and the Gullah Islands. I reflect on historical stories of powerful women as they chant, dance, connect and disconnect through migration and separation of family. These cultural stories are explored within a web of entanglement of lines and layering of material. Ultimately, I reflect on hope, the importance of staying in a place of empowerment, even in the middle of change, chaos and uncertainty. I reflect on this collective moment of progress we are experiencing today in this historical moment. How can I explore these thoughts, feelings in my work?
I visit places in the South; Savannah, St. Simons Island, and Ossabaw Island where myths, and magic exist. The Oak trees with moss move and sway with the wind like a dancer. As I meditate, I reflect on the female body, body language, and hair. I create large ink drawings on the floor, I dance and move through the space in a meditative state of isolation, and contemplation. I focus on how to provide a thread that connects body movement in and out of figurative space within a non-linear, multi-layered shared space.
I work with paper and non-traditional printmaking processes. The spontaneity and unpredictability of process gives me another voice in the abstraction of nature connecting with a sense of place. I explore the landscape and the women of the South; how their spirit can carry off, through nature; plants, flowers, trees, to move, change, yet always searching for a place of permanence and empowerment.
Eleanor Neal received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and now lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Selected exhibitions include the 2021 Atlanta Biennial, Of Care And Destruction, curated by Dr. Jordan Amirkhani at the Contemporary Arts Center; MOCA GA, 2019, Gathered IV in which she was an award winner; MOCA GA Works on Paper: 1980-2013 Women from the Permanent Collection Exhibition; and the International Footprint Biennial Exhibition at the Center of Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Connecticut. Presently her artwork can be seen at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport as part of the MOCA GA Airport Exhibition featuring artists from the Permanent Collection.
Eleanor has exhibited at the Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, the Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College, the Sullivan Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago, Swan Coach House Gallery, Chastain Arts Center, the Steffan Thomas Museum, and the Saco Museum. Her artwork is in the collections Clark Atlanta University Museum, the Boston Consulting Group, and private collections in Dubai and Denmark.
Honors include being selected by High Museum of Art curator, Michael Rooks for the WonderRoot CSA Program; receiving the Hampton University prestigious Elizabeth Catlett Printmaking Award 2016/2012; selected as a finalist for the 2020 Forward Arts Edge Award; selected for the Faith Ringgold Fellowship AnyOne Can Fly Printmaking Award.
Artist residencies include Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences Residency, Rabun Gap, Georgia; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont; Haystack School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine; and Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine. Eleanor has presented workshops at the National Art Educators Association; MOCA GA; and the SGCI Panel-Printmaking Artists of the African Diaspora 2017 at Kennesaw College.
Publications include the International Review of African American Art, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Burnaway, ArtsATL, and Anamesa, the journal of New York University's Graduate School of Arts and Science.
The Hambidge Cross-Pollination Art Lab in Atlanta celebrates the creative process by bringing together visual artists, dancers, writers, poets, musicians, and creatives of all kinds to share ideas and experiment.
