Amy Pleasant’s “Shift: a new world coming” explores abstraction as personal change

Untitled #3 Shift series
Artist Amy Pleasant

The artist will offer a live painting demonstration on Wednesday, August 1st and Thursday, August 2nd, from 10:00am – 3:00pm in the City Hall lobby.

In the second part of her solo exhibition at Shoreline City Hall, Amy Pleasant uses a similarly bright color plate as the previous, classroom-inspired work in Lessons Learned to explore her sense of a new world in the making.

“These days,” writes the artist, “I find myself interested more in the idea of the thing, rather than the physicality of the thing itself,” perhaps referencing poet William Carlos Williams’ famous 20th century credo, “no ideas but in things.”

Here in the 21st century, by contrast, Pleasant suggests a subtle rearrangement of the terms.

In these 17 new works in a variety of presentation formats (including a huge 8’ x 5’ raw canvas painting), Pleasant captures the vibrancy of flora with a consistent eye for blue as a background.

The exhibition is on view on the second floor of City Hall (17500 Midvale Ave N, Shoreline 98133; Monday - Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm) until October 17, 2018.