Christine Sharp: Northwest Aspect

Like a number of younger landscape artists, such as Ryan Molenkamp, Christine Sharp abstracts nature into compositions of dazzling complexity and interlocking blocks of color. Although works are titled with place-names, one is hard put to identify any of the scenery, including Mount St. Helens erupting. Instead, chromatic splinters coexist with swirling areas of solid color. More like tectonic plates than horizon lines or foregrounds of land, Sharp’s oils challenge our expectations of what nature looks like.