In her latest body of work Perennial trace, Atlanta-based artist Evan Blackwell Helgeson explores the multifaceted nature of recollection, reimagination, and remaking as functions of growth through layered abstract paintings.

“The line ‘My soul has grown deep like the rivers,’ from Langston Hughes poem, The negro speaks of rivers, has underpinned the making of this body of work,” says Evan. “A river–in all of its rising, falling, rushing, and meandering– marks time by the depths of its riverbed and the tumbling and softening of its ancient sediment; all the while reflecting the ever changing world around it, and being made new through the collection of falling rain, melting snow, and the persistent carving of new bends. It is both a steady presence and an ever changing force: carrying fresh rainfall over ancient banks; making small shifts over time to create new bodies.”

The paintings in this show evoke a sense of constant transformation mimicking light falling across water, rocks on a river bed, garden blooms, or the canopy of a forest composed of forms that are similar but never exactly the same. Many of the works were created utilizing canvases that had been left in various states of completion over the years. Past iterations became the conceptual foundation and physical substrate for the new; further embodying the practice of recollection and reimagination as facets of growth and modes of evolution.

Based in Atlanta, GA, Evan Blackwell Helgeson received her MFA from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA; and her BFA from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA. Her work, including custom, site-specific murals, can be found in corporate, government, and various private collections both local and abroad; as well as installed in a number of commercial spaces ranging from small businesses to corporate, commercial and hospitality.