Blue Dream at Shrine

The color blue has descended on Shrine. Across the space, the color, usually associated with tranquility, or perhaps sadness, saturates the walls in the group exhibition. While the works in the show take on a number of themes, the color blue unites all of them creating an aesthetic cohesion. One artist included, Carla Edwards, takes vintage American flags and dyes them in darker indigo hues before sewing them back together in quilted arrangements. In this particular iteration, a central vaginal form takes shape in the piece, titled “Tear” a potent commentary on the stifling of women’s rights within American politics. 

Other works take a more fantastical approach, like the Trulee Hall painting, “Foot Cleaning,” which pictures a large pair of feet submerged by water surrounded by smaller figures that pour buckets of water onto the feet as if washing. Here, a tender narrative of community and togetherness. Ava McDonough’s contribution is a detailed microscopic view of a butterfly wing painted in pale blue and white and is so zoomed in on its subject that the painting almost appears abstract in nature. While these works range in content and subject, the exhibition provides a moment of pause to consider how color can manifest emotions — the color blue has the capacious capacity to range from playful to tranquil to melancholy.

Photo: “Blue Dream” at Shrine. Image courtesy of Shrine Gallery.