Exhibit: Anna Buckner: And other Myths

Anna Buckner, Small Frogs, 2024, found fabric on stretcher (24 x 24in.)

Anna Buckner is a painter in the most expanded sense. An interdisciplinary artist and maker, she creates compositions at the intersection of textile patterning, graphic design, and painting. And other Myths is a body of work that leverages the storytelling potential of quilting within the context of painterly composition and design precision. The works defy easy categorization, blending the enticing textures and nostalgic palettes of found fabric with the elevated presentation of a stretched canvas. These images are deeply personal yet universally resonant in their spare iconography.

And other Myths speaks to the all-too-human impulse to self-mythologize. To mythologize is to place something—objects, narratives, or even ourselves—within the stratosphere of the gods, a universal framework to make sense of the challenging and unknown. We tell ourselves stories about our actions and their motivations in an effort to understand our choices and, hopefully, make wiser ones in the future. Buckner self-mythologizes in these quilt paintings to navigate the complexities of new motherhood, finding meaning in the both joyful and overwhelming experience of new life and parenthood. Her studio practice is marked by a self-conscious interrogation of the prevailing systems of logic in painting, language, fiber, and education. In this body of work, she turns that perceptive eye around and onto herself.

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