“Collages from Notes on Clarissa, Volume II”, by Gelah Penn

In her upcoming show at The Cornwall Library, artist Gelah Penn presents a selection of 20 collages from Notes on Clarissa, her ongoing project inspired by the 18th-century epistolary novel Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. The novel’s four-volume story is told primarily through the correspondence (more than 500 letters) between four principal characters, and details the drama of a young woman’s seduction, violation, and ultimate tragedy. Each of Penn’s collages alludes to a letter in this exciting and moving novel.

The artist’s interest in film and fiction informs the work. The tragic story of Clarissa reflects her own anxieties about a vulnerable and fraying world. This unease permeates her materials-based pieces, fueling a continuing engagement with an oblique kind of narrative, grounded in abstraction.

The collages in Notes on Clarissa use source photographs from Penn’s expansive, site-responsive, mixed-media installations, which are printed on 5 x 7-inch cards. The pieces in this exhibition are derived from images of the artist’s installation shown at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in 2017.

Penn’s careful manipulation of images highlights the interplay between the lightweight synthetic materials used in her installations and the photographic representation of that work. It is a phenomenological approach that emphasizes atmosphere, form, and visual experience. The reformulation and reconstruction of her work is an essential part of her practice.

After many years in New York City, Penn now lives in West Cornwall with her husband, painter Stephen Maine. Her artwork has been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at FURNACE/Art on Paper Archive (Falls Village), ICEHOUSE Project Space (Sharon), Amelia A. Wallace Gallery/SUNY Old Westbury (Old Westbury, NY), Baker Center for the Arts/Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA), and Foley Gallery (New York, NY). Group exhibitions include: Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder, CO), Center for Maine Contemporary Art (Rockland, ME), and National Academy Museum (New York, NY). Her work is in the collections of the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum Library, Arkansas Arts Center, Columbus Museum, and Cleveland Institute of Art/Gund Library. Reviews of her work have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, and Whitehot Magazine, and her work was featured in Sculpture Magazine. Penn has received a Connecticut Artist Fellowship, a Tree of Life Individual Artist Grant, and fellowships from the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Yaddo, and MacDowell.