New Feature Exhibition in April March 17 2022
Sara Pedigo:
Light Passes Through
April 2 - 29, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2, 4-7 PM
Artists Talk: Friday, April 29, 11 AM
CLICK TO SHOP FROM THIS EXHIBITION
Image: Sara Pedigo, Ghosts at the Table, oil on panel, 13.25 x 16 inches
About the Exhibition:
St. Augustine-based artist Sara Pedigo is known for her oil paintings of the “ordinary sublime” in which she carefully observes and records details from often overlooked spaces she encounters on a daily basis.
As exemplified in her exhibition title, Light Passes Through, the transitive quality of light is central to this body of work. She explains, “Light mediates our perception of the world and is highly influential in my life and to each of my artworks. Light is the singular requirement for all life and is the source of our perceived experience. Light is the arbiter of color, form, space, and ultimately, visual memories.”
To create her paintings, Pedigo pays close attention to the nuanced qualities of light from both natural and artificial sources during different times of day. In the piece titled Ghosts at the Table, for example, Pedigo presents stacks of dishes in an open cabinet illuminated by the ceiling light above. At the same time, a softer light appears to sweep through the scene from the left, implying a nearby window.
The act of painting is as much about the process as the finished product for Pedigo. It provides her with an opportunity to slow down so she can be “both mentally and physically present in the world.” She summarizes that it is through this “slow looking,” that she is able to focus on “the complexity inherent in the present moment, which is bound to an appreciation for life itself.”
About the Artist:
Sara Pedigo grew up in the American South. She received her MFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2007 and is currently a Professor at Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida, her undergraduate alma mater.
Pedigo has exhibited nationally, with solo exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, FL; Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH; Western Illinois University; Furman University in South Carolina; and Wynn Bone Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland, among others. Her numerous group exhibitions, include Drawing Discourse at the University of North Carolina, Asheville and Root to Bloom at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. Additionally, her paintings were featured in the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2020 and at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC in 2006.
Pedigo was honored with a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant in 2006 and a Community Foundation of Northeast Florida Grant in 2016. Her artwork has been the cover art for the following publications: Ivory Tower: A journal of poetry published by the University of Delhi, Play Button: Poems by Liz Robbins published by Cider Press Review and Minetta Review: a literary and arts publication at New York University.
