Anne Austin Pearce: Leaving Alone

In her large-gallery installation at the Daum, Anne Austin Pearce sets out to blur the distinctions between the roles of artist and viewer. She has constructed a collaborative and interactive setting, where visitors are encouraged to create their own images from reproduced fragments of the artist’s compositions. Pearce, whose studio is in Kansas City, is well regarded for her ink and acrylic paintings that feature layered, biomorphic forms and dazzling, saturated color. These overlapping abstract shapes, resembling psychedelic amoebas, complement her goal to work at the intersection of art, literature, and science. The exhibition introduces a monumental, free-form mural inspired by the myth of Icarus. Other components are influenced by authors Margaret Atwood and Virginia Woolf, while a central structure references a natural history museum.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website