Roswell Artist in-Residence: Cedra Wood

November 23, 2019 - January 12, 2020
Lecture and Opening Reception:
Friday, November 22, 5:30 pm

Roswell Artist-In-Residence Cedra Wood has long been in the grip of an obsession: the eerie, visceral, and unsettling tales found in ancient Scottish and English ballads. For her exhibition at RMAC, she presents paintings inspired by this fixation. Ranging from darkly funny to moody and morbid, the miniature works depict transmuted snakes, prophetic selkies, wax babies, and other elements meant to evoke an eldritch time and place—a lyrical and symbolic otherworld that has been perpetuated by word of mouth for centuries.

In addition to these ballad-based works, six larger paintings and their accompanying props represent Wood’s first attempt to communicate the haunted double-vision through which she sees the American West, infusing landscapes with supernatural remembrances and inventions, creating unearthly contemporary narratives.
 
Wood grew up in the Texas panhandle, and after receiving her MFA at the University of New Mexico, has revolved around NM while participating in numerous residencies, including Teton Artlab (Jackson, WY), The Arctic Circle (Svalbard, Norway), and Sagehen Creek Experimental Forest and Biological Field Station (Truckee, CA). She received a research fellowship at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, and grants from the Harwood Emerging Artist Fund, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (via the Land Arts Mobile Research Initiative). To learn more about the artist, visit www.cedrawood.com.

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