Oil Paintings by Laurie Hoen
An exhibit of oil paintings, combining elements of still life and allegory, challenging viewers with questions about social and environmental issues facing America. Visual allegories are puzzles to be solved. They depend on both insight and suggestion.
The traditions of still life offer us quiet ways to pause–to peer into a setting of familiar objects that reflect our own experience. The elements of allegory ask us to consider our experience in the context of the social commentary that animates the objects. Are the birds or animals in the paintings disconcertingly oblivious to us, or do they turn and invite us in, asking us to play a role? Some art challenges the viewer to figure out what they’re looking at. The art asks you to figure out not what it is, but what it means.