Mary Ann Aitken
September 23 - November 5, 2016
Press Release
What Pipeline is honored to present a selection of previously unshown works by Mary Ann Aitken.
Mary Ann Aitken (b. 1960, Detroit, d. 2012, Brooklyn) was for thirty years a prolific artist whose output included painting, drawing, and impastoed assemblages. During the late 1980s she often painted everyday scenes including the view of Downtown Detroit as seen through the windows of her studio at the Cary Building, and objects at her parents' house in the University District of Detroit. Cropped into 48x48 and 24x24 inch squares, these paintings elude being labelled landscapes or still lives; anticipating Aitken's later interest in photography, they evoke the snapshot moment of a Polaroid square. Viewed through contemporary eyes (which might relate them to the cropping of an Instagram post) they escape their original, now decades-old time period and click effortlessly into our post-digital perspective. Yet what may appear effortless in Aitken's work never was; she spent ample time realizing each work. Her dedication to her vision, largely conceived and contemplated behind private studio doors, will continue to engage audiences well beyond her, and our, lifespans.
September 23 - November 5, 2016
Press Release
What Pipeline is honored to present a selection of previously unshown works by Mary Ann Aitken.
Mary Ann Aitken (b. 1960, Detroit, d. 2012, Brooklyn) was for thirty years a prolific artist whose output included painting, drawing, and impastoed assemblages. During the late 1980s she often painted everyday scenes including the view of Downtown Detroit as seen through the windows of her studio at the Cary Building, and objects at her parents' house in the University District of Detroit. Cropped into 48x48 and 24x24 inch squares, these paintings elude being labelled landscapes or still lives; anticipating Aitken's later interest in photography, they evoke the snapshot moment of a Polaroid square. Viewed through contemporary eyes (which might relate them to the cropping of an Instagram post) they escape their original, now decades-old time period and click effortlessly into our post-digital perspective. Yet what may appear effortless in Aitken's work never was; she spent ample time realizing each work. Her dedication to her vision, largely conceived and contemplated behind private studio doors, will continue to engage audiences well beyond her, and our, lifespans.