Elisa Contemporary Art is pleased to present "Rooted Down and Rising Up ". This three-woman show features artists Amy Cheng, Sara V. Cole and Michelle Gagliano. It will open on June 22nd and run through September 28th. Our artists draw their influences from nature – the flowers, leaves and vines – deeply rooted in the world all around us to portray the complex connections into the human mind, body, soul, and spirit.

The featured artists utilize a range of creative mediums and styles. California artist Sara V. Cole, debuting with Elisa Contemporary Art, uses layers of torn and hand cut paper leaves and botanical shapes sometimes up to 300 pieces, collaged with acrylic paints.

According to Cole,"I utilize hybridized botanical shapes to visualize the interactions of nature and the human condition...I am searching for balance ...to find the mindful middle ground that can sustain both the bountiful and destructive nature of our humanity."

Virginia artist, Michelle Gagliano, combines imaginary ‘natural’ forms with textural patinas creating breathtaking panoramas that both evoke timeless private visions and invoke universal themes and emotions. According to Gagliano, “My current body of work further reduces and deconstructs the landscape, reflecting and refracting the prism of light and soul in a contemporary concept... I see my work as a kind of mapping of natural beauty. Maps themselves to me are like veins of the earth, like the body itself.”

Chinese artist, Amy Cheng, works with oil on paper and on Canvas using patterns from around the world. According to Cheng, "I align myself with the long tradition of geometric and floral ornamentation the Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, & European craftsmen have long employed. They did so with the implicit understanding that pattern & repetition, which are endemic in nature, are primal in their rhythmic connection to the human nervous system."