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NORA STURGES’ DARWIN: THE VIEW FROM THE ROAD
May 24–July 21, 2024Â
Common Ground Gallery
Artist Statement
In this ongoing project, begun in the isolation of the early pandemic, I’m using Google Street View to follow the route that Charles Darwin took with the Beagle (1832-36) and making tiny, postcard-sized paintings of what I discover. Like Darwin, I’m dedicated to close observation and guided by curiosity.
The observations of the natural world that Darwin accumulated on his trip led, years later, to the theories of natural selection and evolution that he set forth in On the Origin of Species. My own journey is taking place during a time that is undeniably Anthropocene, and I find that my observations are leading me instead to ideas about what it is to be human.
About the Artist
Nora Sturges has exhibited her work widely in solo shows at the Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville, Virginia), Spaces (Cleveland, Ohio), David Lusk Gallery (Nashville, Tennessee), C. Grimaldis Gallery and School 33 (Baltimore, Maryland), the 1708 Gallery (Richmond, Virginia), the Lancaster Museum of Art (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), and Ventura College (Ventura, California), among others.
Sturges’ group exhibitions have included Lonsdale Gallery (Toronto, Canada), Galerie Youn (Montreal, Canada), Civilian Art Projects (Washington, DC), Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (Berlin, Germany), the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (Wilmington, Delaware), Asya Geisberg Gallery and The Painting Center (New York, New York), Seraphin Gallery (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and Antioch College, Goucher College, and Maryland Art Place (Baltimore, Maryland).
Sturges is the recipient of four Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and her work has been included in New American Paintings four times. She received a BA in studio art from Bowdoin College and an MFA in painting from Ohio University. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where she is a professor of art at Towson University.
Image: Nora Sturges, Darwin: The View from the Road, 2021