Statement
In 2019, I had the remarkable opportunity to travel in Africa and experience for myself the cradle of humanity. Endless plains and sacred volcanic mountains, sublime reflecting waters teaming with pink flamingos, and the indigo blue Indian Ocean. Lake Natron, on the Tanzanian side, is a feast for the senses, located at the base of Mount Enkai, the mountain of God, the most sacred place for the Maasai people. It is a very acidic orange lake basin with a shore of white and grey crusted salt and volcanic ash. The lake is surrounded by hardened black volcanic ash soil, and, beyond, yellow grasses blowing in the dry heat at the base of a mountain. It is a magnificent desert. For miles, striations of salt crusts and patches of water reflect the blazing light. As you draw closer to the pink horizon, you see it is filled with millions of pink flamingos congregating and feasting along the edges of the lake’s alkaline orange waters. The light, colours, textures, and atmosphere of this place are the most profound experience of the senses and the soul.
I have always thought that we test ourselves within the natural world, continually standing on thresholds of something greater than ourselves, shifting our outer and inner states against a horizon of sorts. Bearing witness to these extraordinary experiences brought me back to being that speck in the landscape of my childhood, playing in the in-between, longing for thresholds, and seeking place. Attempting to express these ideas in paint is a process of inventing and inviting-- a poetic dance in the immeasurable.
-Sasha Rogers
Biography
Sasha Rogers has been a professional painter for over 20 years. Whilst she has not lived in the vast Canadian prairies since the beginning of her career, she retains the influence of the vast expanses and endless horizon lines experienced in the landscape of her upbringing. Rogers sees her artwork as a continual exploration of, and dialogue with, physical and visual concepts of space. It is important for her to create an entrance and exit, or in other words, a “portal” for the viewer to move into the depth of her horizon line that separates the bottom and top color fields of her paintings. Her work suggests balance between different states, whether it is a reference to atmospheric conditions or the movement of water, a philosophical questioning of states of existence, or through an aesthetic rendering of color field imaging. Rogers’ work has been influenced by the work of William Turner, Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Antoni Tapies, and her father - sculptor and painter, Otto Rogers. What collectively draws her to these great artists is their dedication to evocative metaphors rather than literal descriptions. She states, “They invite rather than prescribe.” Sasha Rogers received her Masters of Painting in 1987 and was a painting instructor for twelve years. She has focused primarily on solo exhibits and international art fairs and her work held is in numerous private collections in Canada, the USA, and Europe.
All images, dimensions, and values for the exhibition are listed under Sasha Rogers at: http://www.kostuikgallery.com
Tuesday to Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturdays 10am- 5pm, Sundays 12pm – 4pm. Private appointments are always welcome
* Exhibition Catalogue Available
