Grounded

Uprise Art is pleased to present Grounded, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of painter Karina Bania, and photographer Brooke Holm. In the exhibition, both artists delve into the nuanced relationship between identity and environment, using the specificity of place as a lens to navigate both personal and universal narratives.

Titled Troposphere, Holm’s newest body of work was shot from a small plane situated below the stratosphere, in the lowest layer of the atmosphere about 3,000 feet from the Earth’s surface. The photographs present painterly interpretations of the seemingly horizonless landscape, flecked with iridescent orange and coral tones from the ephemeral salt lakes of the South Australian desert. These aerial images of isolated basins lack a fixed grounding element and have an abstract sense of  scale. This visual ambiguity challenges us to navigate a shifting perspective where the familiar becomes alien - a sentiment that is echoed by the uncertain and destabilizing nature of climate change we are now experiencing globally.

With closer inspection, small interventions on the landscape come into focus - animal tracks and other recognizable artifacts become glyphs that connect us to the context of the image, orienting ourselves within the photograph’s altered perspective. Deserts symbolize both resilience and fragility; the environments that Holm captures sustain life under extreme conditions, embodying the passage of time, and also mirroring the landscapes of other planets in our solar system. Her photographs invite reflection on these qualities, positioning deserts as powerful allegories for the profound transformations taking place on Earth.

In 'Grounded', Bania and Holm invite viewers to reconsider their connection to the world around them through the lens of abstracted perception.

Bania’s paintings act as a record of both physical and emotional time. Her gestural abstract paintings are created by allowing thinned paint to pool and settle into the absorbent canvas. Working intuitively, Bania balances spontaneity with intention, allowing forms to naturally emerge as fluid pigments flow and coalesce while subtly guiding them into place with deliberate precision. Quicker marks are added with drawing tools and opaque paint, punctuating the aqueous environs with each movement in reaction to the last - a delicate call and response between intention and surrender.

Bania’s paintings are poetic musings on place, with this body of work being inspired by her recent travels to Oaxaca and Mexico City. The paintings encode time-worn elements that have been shaped and softened by nature. In these spaces, weathered cobblestone streets merge with the vibrant jungle of trees, mountain streams carve through ancient stones, and the afternoon light turns clay walls into fields of color. Each painting delves into the intersection of observation and reflection, where the physical world fades into the gesture of paint across the canvas.

In Grounded, Bania and Holm invite viewers to reconsider their connection to the world around them through the lens of abstracted perception. While Holm’s photographs challenge our sense of scale and belonging, urging us to reflect on the disorienting effects of climate change, Bania’s paintings explore the intimacy of place, where memory and nature converge. Together, the artists create a space for contemplation with work that speaks to the profound transformations unfolding all around us, reminding us of the delicate balance between human existence and the ever-changing environments we call home.

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