Underdonk

press release

Aleta Lanier: Adornments

September 16 – October 16, 2022

Closing Reception: October 16th 4-6 pm

Underdonk is pleased to present a solo exhibition of collages and paintings by Aleta Lanier, whose recent work explores parallels between animal and human perception.Through the making of improvised collaged surfaces adorned with snippets of attentive painting and decoration, each piece is a material inquiry into mess and refinement, liberation and constraint, frustration and play — the sorts of experiential contradictions likely shared by most living things. Adornment behaviors and play observed in wild dolphins and other animals serve as inspiration for work that seeks aesthetic liveliness in everyday materials. If you make a painting thinking about other animals’ innate tools for perception and experience, another set of feelings can arise: a sense of lack tempered by deep connection. The out-of-familiar-body experience that results from working this way suggests that painting and making can be a conduit to engaging with other kinds of minds, however crudely.

Aleta Lanier was born in 1977 and received her MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2010. Her work has been shown at and through varied spaces, including Insurance Gallery, GCADD, Granite City, IL, California State University, Chico,CA, and Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, St. Louis, MO. Her collaborations with poet Blueberry Morningsnow have been featured in poetry publications such as Jubilat, Thermos, and Propeller Magazine. She has participated in residency programs such as the Vermont Studio Center and Paul Artspace, and has curated exhibitions at Flood Plain Gallery in St. Louis and Underdonk (as a former co-director). She lives and works in St. Louis, MO.

Curated by Underdonk.

Installation photos by Masaki Hori.