Inland Current

Qualia Contemporary Art is pleased to present Inland Current, a solo exhibition by realist landscape painter Neil Griess. The show features acrylic, gouache, and pastel paintings derived from Griess’s home state of Nebraska, with an emphasis on the interaction between the natural world and the built environment. His pieces attend closely to oft-overlooked subject matter, such as stray grasses along a suburban creek or the raised lettering on a car. By dialing into — and lightly distorting — the visual information we see in our day-to-day lives, Griess recontextualizes it into something beautiful, strange, and deeply precious. Straying from the traditional landscape form, the artist’s car lettering pieces often allude to a conceptual or imagined landscape. By shifting the perspective of the letters, which float in an unspecified environment, they begin to take on an almost monumental scale. In this way, they feel both highly specific and universally relevant. Viewed as a whole, Inland Current captures the feeling of a distinct place and time, while inviting viewers to see the wider world through the artist’s eyes.