Reception: March 7, 5:30-7:30 PM

Awarded top prizes in juried exhibitions and sought by collectors throughout the U.S. and Europe, Sharon Booma’s complex abstract paintings vigorously pursue a balance between the states of chaos and order. Masterfully combining color, texture and repetition of form to create a state of visual equilibrium, Booma seeks in her paintings a reconciliation with the circumstances that characterize her chosen media—oil and mixed media on panel or paper—and also those posed by the questions and calamities of life.

The process of “finding and eventually understanding the path to completion or resolution” is the central notion in Defining Circumstances, an exhibition of Booma’s recent work to be shown at LewAllen Contemporary in Santa Fe during the month of March.

Booma’s recent work is, in a word, a continuation. Continuously challenging herself to take risks and make new discoveries, Booma approaches painting with a Zen-like attitude. By allowing the process to define the direction of the painting, her approach can be called nothing but instinctual.

When asked in a recent interview with Studio International, a New York based art magazine, how she arrived at her current style, she replied, “I was inspired, had faith and a genuine desire to realize and know myself, to follow my instincts. This instinct led me to strip away everything that was not essential in my paintings without losing its sensuality or beautiful light.”

Indeed, her paintings introduce the viewer to a seductive interplay of light and shadow, surface and depth, and a sense of the intangible made tangible.

Educated at the College of New Rochelle, NY, and the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts, Booma has been exhibiting her work since 1986. Her work, which can be found in numerous private collections nationwide, has most notably been published in Color (2005) and The Art of Seeing (2002) by Paul Zelanski and Mary Pat Fisher.