Aubrey Saget’s Mesmerizing Solo Show
No one paints quite like Aubrey Saget. Through an exacting mark-making process and careful attention to color and form, the artist depicts how she sees and experiences the world around her through a remarkably singular approach.
Her work comprises a range of competing notions: fluidness versus exactness, quick versus slow, timeless versus ephemeral. She often depicts natural forms: sky, plant life, water, but juxtaposes these elements amidst human-made constructs, like walls or sidewalks. Though the forms aren’t depicted abstractly, Saget imbues her own unique visual understanding of how these elements commingle in space with a mesmerizing effect that creates a clear separation from reality.
Aubrey Saget, “White Flowers Up North”; courtesy of the artist and Halsey McKay Gallery.
In her paintings, Aubrey Saget lets us experience the world through her lens.
Saget’s technical precision leaves no room for error. By working wet-on-wet, the artist gives herself one single opportunity to depict the forms she envisions. What might appear as a sort of whimsical and free-flowing Impressionistic style is actually a remarkably calculated and rigorous process.
This intentionality mirrors the ways in which she gathers visual inspiration for her compositions. Though many works are inspired by quickly captured photos taken by the artist while walking around her neighborhood or traveling in less familiar areas, Saget memorializes these fleeting moments through an intense period of study once back in her studio. The results are astonishing, and give the viewer an opportunity to see how Saget experiences the world around her.
Aubrey Saget, “Wait For It”; courtesy of the artist and Halsey McKay Gallery.
The sincerity with which Saget creates is also demonstrated through the forms and elements she is drawn toward. Flowers and weeds with limited lifespans, bodies of water in constant motion, or sunsets moments before the sky goes dark are captured with such a sense of familiarity and connectedness that draws the viewer further inside her journeys.
Installation view of Aubrey Saget’s “Took A Walk,” courtesy of the artist and Halsey McKay Gallery.
From sunsets to flowers, and from landscapes to streetscapes
There is also a significant diaristic quality to the artist’s work and process, which presents itself both through the artist’s methodical documentation of her surroundings, but also through the titles she assigns to each work. Works named Walked to the Movies, Last Year, Union Street, Union Street, Again, and Greenwich Avenue transport the viewer to different places and moments in time, recent or long behind in the past. Though she travels to new places, Saget is equally inspired by revisiting the same streetscapes she has already happened upon. And while the walks and trips she has taken have all happened weeks, months, or years before being memorialized through her painting process, it’s hard not to think about the future, and what she might come across next.
Aubrey Saget, “Walking In Cobble Hill”; courtesy of the artist and Halsey McKay Gallery.
Installation view of Aubrey Saget’s “Took A Walk,” courtesy of the artist and Halsey McKay Gallery.
