Into the Abyss: Marsia Alexander-Clarke, Richard Brown Lethem, & Eileen Senner

Into the Abyss will consist of three solo exhibitions organized around a common theme. Artists Marsia Alexander-Clarke (video), Richard Brown Lethem (painting), and Eileen Senner (painting) all explore the picture plane as a portal of infinite space that is also a metaphor for the mind. The “abyss” of the picture plane is a space of vast emptiness, yet also one of powerful latent energies.

The picture plane is often thought of as either representational (creating an illusion of space that references the physical world) or abstract (dealing with form and color). Alexander-Clarke, Lethem, and Senner, however, all depict elements of the real world in order to access psychological space. In this dynamic, the picture plane is not a mirror of the world; it is a portal between the mind of the artist and the mind of the viewer. Whether realized in painting or video, these artists demonstrate the great potential for enlightenment and existential realization that can be found within a simple rectangle.