Photo by Hekyung Parkbarr
Biography
Sally Veach (b. 1962, Summit, NJ), earned a BFA from Syracuse University and is a newly juried studio artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. With her paintings and drawings, Veach explores the power of nature and the footprint of human habitation on Earth.
Veach will present her first Washington DC solo show at the DC Arts Center in August 2024. She was awarded a public art commission for Fairfax County, VA in 2023. The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA, acquired her painting, Harvest Ghost, in 2019. The City of Alexandria, Virginia acquired her painting, Cloud Five, in 2017.
Veach was awarded a solo exhibition at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in 2019-2020. She is a two-time solo exhibitor at the Delaplaine Arts Center, Frederick, MD. She was a panelist for the public discussion, Women in the Arts, moderated by Kathryn Wat, Chief Curator of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC.
Additional solo and group exhibitions include Washington Studio School, DC Arts Center, and Latela Curatorial in Washington, DC, The Athenaeum and Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA, Anne Neilson Fine Art in Charlotte, NC, The Haen Gallery in Asheville, NC, Anne Irwin Fine Art and Thomas Deans Fine Art in Atlanta, GA, and Cheryl McGinnis Gallery in NYC. Residencies include the Vermont Studio Center, Weir Farm National Historic Site, Lodestar School of Art in Ireland. Her work is in numerous private collections.
Statement
Drawing on intense observations of natural environments, I paint expressive, abstract landscapes that are often juxtaposed with symbolic, hard edged shapes. The gestural, uncontrived strokes recall to me the sublime power of nature, a reminder that humans are quite small compared to natural forces. Contrasting elements of masking and collage refer to our separation from the natural world. We are both a part of and apart from Nature.
Although I do hope my work conveys an emotional sense of place, ideas about the universality of change are present. I am conscious of the consequences of European colonization, in which my ancestors participated. Recent work explores the legacy of the colonial era’s desire for Indian chintz fabric which caused an exponential proliferation of slavery and expulsion of indigenous peoples in the American South, all to support the cotton industry. In addition to this startling and important revelation, it is fascinating that something so beautiful could have such dire consequences. The pervasiveness of opposing truths is extroidinary.
My new series, Beautiful Terrible, incorporates museum-sourced,18th century chintz textile designs into gesturally expressive, landscape paintings. The work explores the dark legacy of a popular Colonial American fashion trend. The Western desire for chintz cloth, and resulting cotton industry in the American South, led to an exponential proliferation of slavery and expulsion of indigenous peoples. A beautiful product led to terrible consequences.
To create the work, I rapidly cut out pieces of canvas and leave them in their resulting irregular shapes. These haphazard substrates refer to textile remnants found in museums such as Colonial Williamsburg and the Victoria & Albert Museum. By utilizing stencils and masks based on these designs, I weave two landscapes onto a single canvas. The landscapes are observed through the prism of the textile patterns. I also use the absence of color to indicate the negative effects of colonialism.
In a subset of this body of work, I refer to 19th Century Hudson River School landscape paintings. This resource enables a three-tiered concept, representing the progression the American cultural and environmental landscape from the indigenous state of nature to colonization to romanticization. And finally by utilizing the technology of digital manipulation of the Chintz textile designs and automatic die cutting of stencils, the work is capped by references to our current era.
Born 1962, Summit, NJ
Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2024 Solo Show, DC Arts Center, Washington DC (scheduled August)
2023 Sally Veach & Megan Caldwell, Purple Fern Gallery, Winchester, VA
2022 Sally Veach: Toombs Hollow, Delaplaine Art Center, curated by Corey Frey, Frederick, MD
2020 Ghosts of a Forgotten Landscape: Paintings by Sally Veach, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, curated by
Corwyn Garman, Winchester, VA
Arura, Muse Vineyards, Woodstock, VA
2019 Ghosts of a Forgotten Landscape: Paintings by Sally Veach, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, curated by
Corwyn Garman, Winchester, VA
Abstracted Landscapes, Staunton Innovation Hub, Staunton, VA
2018 Barns of Shenandoah, Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick, MD
Barns of Shenandoah: Returning to Nature, The Barns of Rose Hill, Berryville, VA
Almost Heaven, Grasshopper Gallery, Wardensville, VA
Barns of Shenandoah & More, Larkin Arts Wine-Riner Galleries, Harrisonburg, VA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 VSC X WSS, Washington Studio School, Washington, DC
March 150, Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA
ADMO Art Walk, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC
2022 Torpedo Factory Art Center On the Road, Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, VA
Newly Juried, Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA
2021 Art Optimism, The Athenaeum, curated by Twig Murray, Alexandria, VA
Garden Party, Latela Curatorial on line show, curated by Marta Staudinger, Washington, DC
Shine: Catching the Light, AnnMarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center, Solomons, MD
2020 2020 Virginia Juried Artists Exhibition, Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center, Hampton, VA
Vital Force, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, curated Corwyn Garman, Winchester, VA
Salon Show, Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Terrain: A Landscape Collective, Anne Neilson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Social Media Friends,Thomas Deans Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2018 Art at Belle Grove, three person exhibit, Belle Grove Plantation, Middletown, VA
2017 2017 Emerging Artists Exhibition, Anne Irwin Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Abstracts Matter, 311 Gallery, Raleigh, NC
2016 American Landscapes, Maryland Federation of Art, Circle Gallery, Annapolis, MD
Larkin Arts National Juried Exhibition, Larkin Arts, Wine-Riner Galleries, Harrisonburg, VA
Institutional Collections
County of Fairfax, VA
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, VA
City of Alexandria, VA
Awards and Honors
2023 Marion Park Lewis Foundation Grant
2022 Torpedo Factory Art Center Studio Recipient
Marion Park Lewis Foundation Grant
Weir Farm Art Center Residency, Weir Farm National Historic Park, Wilton, CT
Chateau Orquevaux Residency, Orquevaux, France
Lodestar School of Art Residency, County Limerick, Ireland
2021 Marion Park Lewis Foundation Grant
Lodestar School of Art Residency, County Limerick, Ireland
2020 Vermont Studio Center, merit grant, Johnson, VT
Bibliography
2022 Mark Jenkins, In the galleries: Seasonal group shows include a singular artist / Newly Juried 2022, Washington
Post, Aug 12, 2022
Lauren La Rocca, Four new solo exhibitions at the Delaplaine Center, The Frederick News-Post, Feb 16, 2022
2019 Jenny Baker, MSV to host Women in the Arts panel Sunday, The Winchester Star, Aug 3, 2019
Josette Keelor, ArtFest paints a fun scene in downtown Woodstock, The Northern Virginia Daily, June 24, 2019
2018 Ashley Miller, Barns of Shenandoah County, The Shenandoah Valley-Herald, May 11, 2018
Ashley Miller, Belle Grove art show features 75 works by 3 artists, The Winchester Star, Mine 21, 2018
Education
Selected Study
2022 New York Studio School, Painting Marathons, Graham Nickson, Fran O-Neil
Eric Aho Master Workshop, Eric Aho Studio, Saxtons River, VT
NYC Crit Club: instructors Clarity Haynes, Andrew Woolbright, Yevgeniya Baras , Alexis Callender, Monica King
2021 NYC Crit Club: instructor Padma Rajendran
Degree
1984 BFA: Illustration, Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse, NY and London Program