Maria Calandra. Chasin’ the Sun

About

Calandra’s painting overpowers modern apathy and digitized disconnection through saturated and hypnotic form. As humanity becomes increasingly distanced from the organic world and sequestered in cities or behind screens, Calandra’s landscapes defy this status quo. And while existential concerns like the climate crisis and a modern “loneliness epidemic” loom large, Calandra returns to the roots of the landscape genre to restore faith in a sublime connection between individual and the environment. Vivid, experiential, and embodied, Calandra’s liquid inversions not only reconnect the viewer to the landscape but also reconnect the landscape to itself. There is rarely a horizon line to be found in her work, which instead allows sky, sea, and foliage to melt into one another on the canvas, creating an effect of tumultuous unity.