Florescence
By C.J. Charbonneau
Exhibition held at The Smalter Gallery, KCMO, from Mar. 15 - Apr. 18, 2025
Florescence in American English (floʊˈrɛsəns ; flɔˈrɛsəns ; fləˈrɛsəns ) Noun 1. the act, condition, or period of blooming 2. a period of success or achievement
Can creativity evolve, in the middle stages of life? How does one avoid getting stuck, stifled or trapped, by convention or habit? How does the artist stay alive in their practice when outside interest wanes, and opportunities are not as abundant? Is it possible to be “continually emerging?”
Though the artist must persistently progress to avoid stagnation, there is always the danger of straying too far from brand recognition and a known aesthetic, being perceived as lacking a consistent vision. Innovation is necessary yet risky. But how else is a mid-career artist to remain relevant, in the sea of new faces emerging daily?
Florescence celebrates three women’s exploration of the transformation of their creative practices. Each artist experiments with unfamiliar materials and methods as a leap into unknown territory, entering an aspirational new phase that amplifies and expands on past work.
Shelly Pinto’s practice is historically rooted in pattern, color, and shape. Drawing from memory, ritual, and intuition, her work melds surface pattern and kaleidoscopic color into harmoniously balanced compositions. A recent detour into printmaking sparked a desire to explore her signature geometric abstraction through the movement of the human figure. Inspired by the Triadic Ballet of the Bauhaus, she began experimenting with flat, large-scale hardwood objects saturated with color. Painting these objects on the wall led to another revelation; the interaction of the negative/positive space left behind on the wall unearthed, in the moment, the interplay of movement that marked the liminal space of creation.
Laura Nugent is known for her uninhibited and unconventional abstract paintings. Colorful and unrestrained, her artworks reflect an embrace of uncertainty and the rejection of boundaries and convention. Emerging from a process of selecting, revising, and arranging, the resulting works evoke the language of jazz in their free-form improvisation; they are meandering yet cohesive. Not content to remain in her current creative “lane,” she sought to press on further into the unknown. In expanding the notion of materiality always present in her work, there is a deepened exploration of the fragile and ephemeral; she is shedding, letting go of the comfort of something that endures toward an uncertain future where her legacy, if any, is only this moment.
Terri Pollack is a citizen of the world. Her work is deeply personal, shaped by extensive travel and the openness to experience and embrace the unfamiliar. Referencing a wide variety of art historical and architectural concepts, her paintings and prints represent both figurative and geographical subjects that are known to her. An emphasis on essence versus literal interpretation lends a dreamlike quality to her compositions. Iterative sessions with her fellow collaborators resulted in their work moving outside the picture frame and even off the substrate. The synergy that came from these dynamic interactions, along with a recent residency, brought her practice off the wall into the three-dimensional space of installation work. The result is an adaptation of memory, a moment in time where an experience is given form.
Florescence is the culmination of a collaborative rebirth of sorts. By challenging, tending to, and ultimately inspiring one another, these three artists manifested the necessary creative breakthrough to propel them forward in their respective practices.