• Anne Wehrley Björk

    Anne Wehrley Björk

    Anne Wehrley Björk (b. 1948), lives and works between Lexington, KY and Charleston, SC, and originally hails from New Mexico, which has deeply inflected her work. Chaco Canyon, near where she grew up in Northwest New Mexico, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the ancestral home of the prehistoric Anasazi Indians. It is one of only 130 international sites designated as a “Dark Sky Park'', where the night sky is devoid of any light pollution. Bjork’s current body of work is an investigation into this landscape of her youth, as well as its very particular light quality. The pathways, sandstone walls, and the petroglyphs of the Anasazi ruins there etched in her mind. Despite an affinity towards abstraction, in Björk’s own words, “There is a subtle narrative that takes place to be discerned by the viewer. Boulders appear poised to fall while a demi-lune floats in others. The light of turbulent skies adds dynamism in some of the paintings, while an Impressionist use of juxtaposed warm and cool colors create a softness in others, and crepuscule [dusk], overtakes the forms in others.”

    The arc of Björk’s career resembles that of many female painters of her generation--despite beginning her career in the 1970s, her work is finally gaining broader recognition now, later in her career. During her graduate studies at the University of New Mexico, she trained with Agnes Martin, Joan Brown, Susan Rothenberg, and Deborah Butterfield, fellow women artists similarly drawn to the atmospheric quality specific to New Mexico, who encouraged her practice. Her commitment to the subject of Chaco Canyon has been consistent throughout, a constant in a career underpinned by a thorough investigation of light, color, and form.

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