Hit the North (45º 52’N)

Artists

• Victoria Haven

Statement

In her new body of work, Victoria Haven turns her exploration of landscape towards the specific. Emphasizing her connections and rootedness in the Pacific Northwest, the work will manifest in three different forms: a show at PDX Contemporary Art, a show at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle and a corresponding exhibition book for both shows published by Publication Studios.

From sketches of source material to a series of abstracted drawings and paintings, these works reflect on Haven’s personal relationship to abstraction, rock music and the great outdoors. Mimicing the grooves of a vinyl record, the Northwest Field Recording series references a collection of place names which are specific to the Northwest but which also evoke a universal sense of place. What region doesn’t have a Paradise Ridge or perhaps a Thunder Mountain? The concentric rings of text expand (or contract) in perfect circles, evoking the infinite.

The drawings Noise Reduction A side and B side lift their subject matter directly from a favorite mixed-tape. By reducing the elements of this work to the once-familiar audio specs of a comercial tape and an open field which floats above the text block, these works operate in a space between the specifics of time and place and the open ended-ness of silence and white noise.

The minimal works titled Experts Only mark Haven’s return to the discipline of painting after an absence of 14 years. Referencing the diamond shaped cautionary signs of skiing and adventure sports, these paintings allude to the danger and thrill of confronting a challenge and proceeding in a difficult direction.