New Art Exhibit Invites You Into The Unknown

With the introduction of the new year at WSUV comes a vibrant new exhibition in the Dengerink Gallery, this time a solo exhibition entitled See You on the Other Side, which runs until April 9.

The exhibition is composed of a collection of paintings by Portland-based artist Anya Roberts-Toney, whose artwork on linen and paper include intertwined themes of feminine empowerment and agency, transformation, abstraction, and a pull towards the unknown. 

The artwork on display in See you on the Other Side offers vivid displays of color in each piece, which range from the size of a standard piece of paper to multiple feet in each direction, all featuring abstract landscapes and nightlife scenes.

The titular piece, See You on the Other Side, is one of the larger artworks on display, which is 60” x 52” and sits on the far wall of the gallery.

See You on the Other Side breaks from the color scheme from the other pieces, trading the greens and blues as the predominant colors with orange and red. The scene is viewed through a window frame bordering the painting, suggesting a distance or separation between the view and this idyllic landscape.

Roberts-Toney explains, “Distance enhances desire, and I want to express a longing that has not yet been fulfilled.” She explains that the longing of a space yet to be reached is meant to encapsulate the hope for a better future, stating “The world has so much darkness in it right now, and I want my paintings to hold a hope–to reflect what it feels like to love and persevere amidst real worry.”

Girls Night Out is a 50” x 43” painting which exhibits a bustling sense of movement and energy, depicting a round tabletop highlighted in near shimmering beiges and purple-orange tones, contrasting against a monochromatic blue background with hands bathed in blue outstretched over the table.

At the table’s center is an explosion of yellow, blue, green, orange and purple. Despite a seemingly literal depiction of the scene, this abstract bundle of color appears closer to an energy or emotion.

Roberts-Toney states, “I’m interested in capturing the feeling that something is about to happen – a sense that transformation and revelation are possible. I see the imagery in each painting as a portal – a threshold between what we know and what is yet to be discovered.”

In Every Sorrow You’ve Ever Known is a Sparrow Alive and Burning in Your Chest, the painting depicts a nude woman lying under a tree and the open night sky above, with forms of light or energy emitting from her body and into the air. Roberts-Toney explains that to her, this figure is undergoing a transformation, coming into her own.

From the title of the painting as well as the energy coming from the woman’s body, it can be inferred that her sorrows – her hardships throughout her life – are what is being expressed through her as she comes into her own. She is transforming her sorrow into growth, as we all must do throughout our lives.

One can’t help but think about the differences between the attitudes we have towards maturation in our youth and the realities of it. In childhood, we may idealize the abstract idea of growing into ourselves, not considering that to achieve this goal, we must accept the darkness and pain within ourselves to do so.

Between the feminine energy captured in All the Sorrow You’ve Ever Known, and how that energy is resonated amongst other women in Girls Night Out, Roberts-Toney is playing with and exploring the unknown while painting. Amongst all pieces is some element of abstraction, a sense that you may know what you’re looking at, but not quite. 

This theme of the unknown is most present in See You on the Other Side, as the artist explains that the ambiguous land beyond the window frame is of a better world, one that is desired from afar.