Andrea Sherrill Evans – Invasive
October 19 – November 18, 2018
Common Ground Gallery, VisArts
Invasive documents the transformed – and transforming – landscape of the mid-Atlantic investigating the ways in which “Nature” and the “natural” shift under the shadow of the Anthropocene. The postcard-sized drawings of Invasive, depict monumental masses of invasive plants blanketing the native landscape along highways in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Originally introduced by humans both inadvertently and intentionally, invasive species such as English Ivy (Hedera Helix), Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus Altissima), and Kudzu (Pueraria Montana Var. Lobata), out compete native plants in the region and impact entire ecosystems. Rendered through intricate mark-making and subtle tones of silverpoint, images of this dense vegetation ebb and flow through the series. Invasive and native plants amass, becoming amorphous, impenetrable, and at times almost monstrous, bound only by the sharp edge of the road and empty sky. While perspective and point of view shifts across the drawings, the human imprint upon the landscape remains unrelenting.
About the artist: Through intricate drawings, sculpture and performative gestures, Andrea Sherrill Evans explores new forms of nature that reveal the active and irreversible impact of the human hand. Arizona-born and Baltimore-base, Evans’ perspective is largely influenced by the varied landscapes of the places she has lived, including the Southwest, New England, and the mid-Atlantic. She is a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Drawing, St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, Blanche E. Colman Award, and was a 2017 Trawick Prize Semifinalist. Evans’ work has been exhibited at spaces including Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn, NY), The Dorado Project (Brooklyn, NY), Drive-By (Watertown, MA), Montserrat College of Art (Beverly, MA) and SPACE Gallery (Pittsburgh, PA). Her most recent solo exhibition Onloaded: Andrea Sherrill Evans, took place at phlCA (Phoenix, AZ) in 2015. Evans currently teaches in the Drawing Department at Maryland Institute College of Art.
Learn about Andrea Sherrill Evans’ upcoming workshops Silverpoint Drawing