Water-bound
Ari Fouse
Ari Fouse is an oil painter based out of Brooklyn, NY. Her work plays with tension, ambiguity, and the indeterminacy of space. Her most recent body of work, the Water-bound Series uses the seascape as a vehicle to explore the possibilities of painting and elemental abstraction.
Fouse is a '21 BFA Painting student, minoring in Cultural Studies, at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. She is also an alumna of the 2019 Pratt in Venice program, where she served as a teaching assistant for the Art History course. Her work has been exhibited in the Pratt in Venice 35th Anniversary Exhibition, in October 2019; Serving the People's Virtual BFA Show, in May 2020; and Sebastopol Center for the Art's Ecstasy: The Breathtaking Beauty of Nature, in January 2021. Fouse has recently accepted an Artist Residency at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, CA, for August 2021.
While Fouse resides in New York, her native Texas is considered home.
Fouse is a '21 BFA Painting student, minoring in Cultural Studies, at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. She is also an alumna of the 2019 Pratt in Venice program, where she served as a teaching assistant for the Art History course. Her work has been exhibited in the Pratt in Venice 35th Anniversary Exhibition, in October 2019; Serving the People's Virtual BFA Show, in May 2020; and Sebastopol Center for the Art's Ecstasy: The Breathtaking Beauty of Nature, in January 2021. Fouse has recently accepted an Artist Residency at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, CA, for August 2021.
While Fouse resides in New York, her native Texas is considered home.
Artist Statement
My work searches for that point that totters between ways of looking, creating a kind of
tension between abstraction and observation. In my latest series, I am using water and the
seascape to investigate abstraction and the indeterminacy of space.
In an effort to preserve the austerity of minimalism and simultaneously merge it with the
freedom of abstract expression, I use quick wet-into-wet and dry brush painting techniques,
to create depth and subtlety in every stroke. Through this, I want my paintings to elicit a
sense of constant motion and shifting space, creating a kind of ambiguity that suggests
meaning behind the image.
My work is not a quick read. Rather, I want the paintings to create a strange place of
indeterminacy. Abstraction enables the work to exploit this uncertainty, allowing the viewer
to float through the possibilities of painting, to discover new meanings. Through this
process of close-looking, I invite the viewer to enter into a contemplative, ambiguous state
as they reflect upon each painting.
tension between abstraction and observation. In my latest series, I am using water and the
seascape to investigate abstraction and the indeterminacy of space.
In an effort to preserve the austerity of minimalism and simultaneously merge it with the
freedom of abstract expression, I use quick wet-into-wet and dry brush painting techniques,
to create depth and subtlety in every stroke. Through this, I want my paintings to elicit a
sense of constant motion and shifting space, creating a kind of ambiguity that suggests
meaning behind the image.
My work is not a quick read. Rather, I want the paintings to create a strange place of
indeterminacy. Abstraction enables the work to exploit this uncertainty, allowing the viewer
to float through the possibilities of painting, to discover new meanings. Through this
process of close-looking, I invite the viewer to enter into a contemplative, ambiguous state
as they reflect upon each painting.