The Springfield Museums are excited to present Artifice: New Paintings by Priya N. Green April 15-December 31, free with museum admission. Springfield artist Priya N. Green (American, born 1986) uses painting to grapple with the human condition and explore how we see and understand the world.
“In my work, I react to images and events that I find through the news. I am fascinated by how we form a sense of reality about our lives through these events, this information, which instructs and frames our worldview and our daily choices. We view these events through portals of different kinds: our devices, social media, another person’s perspective, a corporation’s agenda. It’s like a game of telephone with the inevitable breakdown of communication. This is normal, natural, human behavior,” says Priya Green.
Green’s most recent body of work, which she started while spending time at home in the early days of the pandemic, draws on her experience of absorbing news and information through electronic devices and screens. The works on view, made between 2020 and 2022, address a central concern of the information age: how do we experience current events from a distance, or second-hand, through the filtered deluge of still and moving images?
Green continues, “We live in this age where we feel overwhelmed by information, constantly inundated, and yet, we still have such an insignificant grasp and understanding of reality as we know it. We are unable to predict the future and memories are fleeting. I’m fascinated by this dilemma and aptly so, it is my personal mission in life to rest in the unknown. I think painting is a great place to do that. So much of painting can be enigmatic. And the further I delve into painting, the less there is of a road map. For me, this is where the joy is. The discovery of the unknown. It is not uncharted territory; there have been other travelers. But it is uncharted for me.”
In Green’s layered paintings, scenes from the news are blurred, abstracted, and interrupted by lines and forms that represent the inevitable gaps in modern communication. For the artist, painting offers an opportunity to study, and rest in, an uncertain space where image and artifice intersect. Often bathed in blue light, Green’s works use a combination of realism and abstraction to ask important questions about the complexities of information and experience in a world that is increasingly filled with screens.
“Timely, thoughtful, and thought provoking, Priya Green’s recent paintings offer an opportunity to contemplate the very way that we absorb visual information in the digital age. Green’s timely concept is expertly executed in the bold hues that unite this body of work. We are honored by the opportunity to display the work of this talented Springfield artist!” says Maggie North, Curator of Art at the Springfield Museums.
About the Artist
Priya N. Green (born 1986) is an artist whose paintings explore found imagery and the human condition. She received a BFA from Rutgers University and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Green has shown her work internationally at spaces including the Jersey City Museum, University Museum of Contemporary Art, Zimmerli Art Museum, the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and Cuchifritos Gallery. She is a recipient of the international Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant as well as a fellowship from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Green lives and works in Springfield, Massachusetts.