Grace Hager’s work will appear in the group show WILD THING opening on September 5th, 2025.
Hager writes,” My work locates the natural wold as a realm of possibility: a source of transformative encounters that generate awe, positioning the magical within the observable world. Continuing in a tradition of Romantic landscape painting, such experiences stand out as moments where empirical, fantastical, and emotional worlds begin to intermingle. Raised by a family of scientists, I inherited a practice of reverently observing the natural world and its inhabitants. In the face of increased disconnection and isolation, the landscape offers an experience of connection even for the solitary – simultaneously generating contemplation of inner worlds and an expanded awareness of the interconnected universe.
Trees, the sun and moon, animals, and other natural elements act both as proxy for and companion to the viewer. My ofter-solitary subjects echo the tradition of the Rükenfigur, a singular figure situated within the natural landscape onto which the viewer may project. My ceramic sculptures exist in physical space and become Rükenfigur, where my paintings function as viewfinders that invite the viewer to enter a sublime environment.
Color is the abstract language I use to incorporate multifaceted emotional experience into observed and imagined landscapes. The awe-inspiring natural order of rainbow wavelengths within visible light inspires my use of vibrant color that charges my subjects with a sense of magic. Through combining spectral coloring and natural elements composed in serendipitous alignment, my work creates a synergistic moment that recalls a feeling of being in the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of the miraculous.”
Artist’s photo credit: Tabitha Bernard
