– Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is pleased to present its latest solo exhibition of recent paintings by Yolanda Sánchez.

Yolanda Sánchez takes the title for this series of works from a Wallace Stevens’ poem, Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour, and says: “No one-to-one relationship is attempted here between painting and poetry, but simply a desire to reflect Stevens’ notion of relationship in a general sense. A relationship between the outer world and the inner one, that is, ‘the intensest rendezvous.’ In this rendezvous, an experience of enlightenment takes place in which ‘…we collect ourselves, out of all the indifferences, into one thing.’ The poem is a beacon of light and hope, of those things that are good in the world. It echoes what I aspire to compress into my work: a spirit of celebration, expansion, optimism - inspiration against the dark – and in Stevens’ words, ‘a compensation for what is lost.’”

Yolanda’s work is not intended as a narrative or rendering of a subject, she references nature, gardens, flowers – but as they exist in a personal relationship. The natural world requires both patience with looking, and a visual acuity that the artist utilizes as both a spiritual practice and a means to sharpen her senses. Sánchez takes from this relationship with nature and paints, sharing and infusing that experience in her work. Her color choices have an aura of optimism; pastels of blues, purple, orange and yellow steer the viewer to “celebration” and “expansion.” The strokes of color can either drift across large canvases or accumulate into dense compositions, but always through or set atop the substrata of pure white canvases.

The scale and distinction between form and field creates an organic space of their own that allows the viewer an opportunity for interaction “between the outer world and the inner one.” The expressiveness of the brushwork also captures a sense of activity and contemplation simultaneously. The mark-making feels spontaneous and improvises its way around the canvas. Whereas intentionality, and the pause in decision-making, is seen in accentuated gestures, paint textures and the masterful manipulation of paint. Sánchez’s works have an organic life of their own, a personal dialogue with nature re-imagined, emphasizing the joy of exploration and play that nature inspires.