Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is pleased to announce Ghosts from a Middle Place, the first solo exhibition of works on paper by Pam Anderson.

Drawing meaning from everyday events, Pam Anderson’s delicate drawing and collage works on paper explore the space between sentiment and artistic formalism. For this exhibition Anderson addresses the events that arise from that middle place of a woman after 40, and losses met: loss of parents, of the ability to conceive, of partners and parts (breast cancer). The given is that life goes on, and her work evidences that there are events to the goings on that merit attention. She says of her work, “My works on paper, by appropriating and adding to the collected “evidence” of my life, pay homage to art’s unique ability to give permanence to the fleeting.” Through the medium of drawing and pencil sketch Anderson expresses a sense of being candid without getting obscene, of addressing sentiment without getting sentimental. The stitched pieces of blue, white and sand colored papers that form the landscapes of Anderson’s stories suggest that they would prefer to shrink away; by nature the work is shy; taken from an internal place and made into a thin skin of armor delicately knit together. The collage is an object which derives from an external place; it is not made from the artist but collected, placed, and given meaning by the artist. There is something jocular and revealing about this element and yet its dimension to the whole is lonely. Anderson’s works on paper chronicles and commemorates personal events as an abstract narrative; her art protects the event giving it durability against the sweep of the everyday.

Pam Anderson lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. She received her MFA from Washington University and currently teaches drawing, painting, and Picturing Memoir at The Collegiate School in Richmond. Anderson exhibits extensively throughout Virginia and has several works in public and private collections.