Anna-Sophia Vukovich
“Soft Signs”
November 13, 2019 to January 5, 2020

Our human response as we move through a world filled with uncertainties is often to search for signs. Whether we look to the skies or look to other people, we long for internal confirmation and guidance even as we seek some sort of nod or prod from outside ourselves. Sometimes we may receive clear and direct indicators. More often than not, the process requires quiet listening and “softer” signs. This experience of searching feels particularly poignant during this time of year; in the church calendar, Advent is a season defined by expectation and waiting, of human beings receiving cosmic signs pointing us towards a new reality. As we move towards the end of the year and start a new one (and a new decade!), we can’t help but reflect on where we’ve been even as we imagine where we are going.

In Anna-Sophia Vukovich's paintings and drawings, arrows and markers serve as external wayfinders but also point towards our own internal navigation. Using colors, abstract shapes and shifts of scale, Vukovich conjures a sense of space and invites us to consider the physical places and spiritual spaces we inhabit. How did we get to where we are today? What were those hard markers or soft signs that directed us in the paths we took? In our shared desire to seek reliable guidance, what did we trust and how did we choose?

Opening |Wednesday, November 13 | 7-9 pm

gallery reception photos by Catherine Lee

"Inner Conversations"
Interview with Anna-Sophia Vukovich

I understand some of your work in this show was made at a residency. What was that like?

This summer, I went back to Alberta, the province where I was born, for a self-directed residency on a friend’s horse farm just outside of Calgary. There was a perfect little shack on the property, and with some drywalling, I managed to convert it into a studio space that turned out to be very productive. The ranch is situated in the foothills of Western Canada, where the sky and land are enormous, and you can see for 100 kilometers to the mountains. You basically have a 360 degree view. It’s also ranching land. I saw lots of deer, cows and horses, a moose, bears, and heard coyotes howling from my studio at night. I was there for the last two and half months, immersing myself in this landscape, a place that has always affected my work. 

How do you feel like the landscape of Alberta in particular affected the work in this show?

For me this geography is very powerful. I grew up going almost every weekend to the mountains. In the winters I used to cross country ski competitively as a teenager, and then in the summers I would go hiking and canoeing with my family and friends. The landscape imprinted itself on me. I can’t say exactly how going back “home” after being gone for so long influenced these works, but there’s a charged aspect, something of an emotional attachment that I’ve been trying to bring into my work, as opposed to coming at it from an intellectual or cerebral point. Everything expanded. The marks became looser, and bigger, and the surface area of the pieces increased. So now the paintings are more of an immersion, as opposed to acting as symbols.

What are you interested in as an artist?

I'm interested in the joy and also the difficulties of life, and think a lot about how to navigate these experiences in a body: emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. What happens when you move inward versus outward, and how far can those expanses go? How does one find hope? How can one expand moments of time, and how does attention play into this? There are always things on the peripheries of our attention, which are actually very important and are clues to other pathways and developments. So I think it matters what you give your attention to. I feel like a lot of the richness in life is not what our culture pays attention to.

How did you choose the title of this show, “Soft Signs?”

I've been working a lot with signage and everyday symbols like arrows, dashes, and other types of marks. Instead of using them as pointers to something very practical, like a “Turn right” signal, I’ve been working with how those symbols can be used to speak to this inner navigation that I am interested in. The “soft” comes from the fact that these inner conversations are never direct. They’re quiet and they’re subtle, and for myself, it’s about trying to pay attention to subtleties, and having a conversation with things that are not as obvious. It’s in a gentle, quiet space where I have found solace, a space that contains possibilities.

What inspired these works?

I was deeply inspired last year by a show I saw at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia by Ree Morton. She combined drawing and sculpture in a way that seemed to come from a place of exploration and joy, not overthinking. She also has an ability to move freely between mediums, which encouraged my exploration of moving between mediums. I felt freer to try things out and push myself in a different direction. And going back home to where I was born inspired me, as there was this reunion with the past.


What do you hope people will experience when they visit your show at the gallery?

I hope people will have an experience of space, an experience of themselves in a larger context, and hopefully a sense of expansion.