Buster Levi Gallery is pleased to announce a two-person exhibition, Shifting Ground by Gretchen Kane and Maria Pia Marrella, opening June 7 through June 29th, 2025.  A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, June 7th, from 4 to 7:00 p.m. The Gallery is open from noon to 6:00, weekends only.

There is a mercurial and unsettling familiarity in Gretchen Kane’s landscape paintings that suggests air, earth, and water. The work emerges partially from her drawing studies in nature, combined with memory, emotion, and instinct. Kane speaks about the process of letting go of representational imagery to uncover what is beneath reality. Her paintings reflect the adage “as above, so below” by suggesting a correspondence between the world at large and a personal interior world.

Horizon lines in Kane’s work provide a navigational framework yet also reference a limitless space, as if the edge of the earth is not far away. Her paintings suggest pathways, mountains and seas that can be seen as metaphors for the journeys that life brings. The simplicity of form in Kane’s work contrasts with her complex colors and application of paint to create atmospheres that reflect beauty as well as desolation.

Maria Pia Marrella's landscapes capture shifting perspectives and aerial viewpoints. Her paintings feature natural and unnatural images constructed in unpredictable ways, evoking the over-cultivation of land and sea.  Marrella's keen sense of personal color and her painterly marks provide viewers with visual excitement and metaphorical references. 

Both artists are grappling with the age-old question: What is our relationship with Nature in this modern life? Kane and Marrella's  paintings are not literal representations of landscapes but are constructed from echoes of former images, providing the viewer with an intimate and thoughtful experience.

Artist Websites:

Gretchen Kane

Maria Pia Marrella