Lois Lambert Gallery presents Rooted in memory, the most recent exhibition of work by artist Sarah Steinberg.

Steinberg paints to preserve the memories of her past, reflecting love and longing for the landscape of her childhood in Canada. She begins by making complicated marks across the canvas, with oil paint. From this mass of shapes, more specific images begin to emerge that guide Steinberg toward an overall composition. Certain shapes are left abstracted, while others are transformed into recognizable figures: the outline of a house, the dense treeline of a snowy forest, etc.

Using photographs of trees and handmade stencils as references, Steinberg captures the likeness of her home in Ontario, while still allowing the image to be transformed by her imagination. This process lends an expressive quality to Steinberg’s work, allowing the viewer to glimpse the layering of emotion and memory in each scene. “I want to find ways to paint something that feels real without necessarily looking real.”

Steinberg often paints over and sands down the canvas repeatedly, turning them around and around until it is clear to the artist which way is right-side up. Traces of previous layers are visible across the canvas, leaving behind “ghosts” of past images. These paintings not only capture the memories of Steinberg’s childhood home, but the overall experience of being homesick and what it’s like to long for a place and time you can only revisit in your heart and in your mind.

Sarah Steinberg currently resides in California. Her work is deeply influenced by the Algonquin School where a group of Canadian artists called the “Group of Seven,” specialized in landscape paintings from 1920 to 1933. Steinberg credits teachers Tom Wudl, Renata Zerner, and Keith Finch as formative in her evolution as a painter. This will be her fifth exhibition at Lois Lambert Gallery.