BRATTLEBORO-Visitors to the exhibition “Michaela Harlow: A Certain Slant of Light,” on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), encounter a world shaped by the artist’s view of winter’s quiet intensity.
In this installation of pastel paintings, scattered sketchbook drawings, and arrangements of stones and birch branches, Harlow translates the fleeting gestures of the natural landscape into marks, textures, and forms “that evoke both movement and stillness,” wrote organizers in a news release.
Inspired by the stark beauty of late fall and winter in New England, Harlow says her work reflects a season when the landscape opens up, “when bare trees reveal depth and structure, and the sun’s low arc casts a diffuse, indirect light.” Working outdoors en plein air, often in challenging conditions, Harlow draws these moments.
The exhibition’s curator, Michael Abrams, connects Harlow’s work to a lineage of artists engaged with the natural world and expressive mark-making.
“Harlow’s work is ripe with energy,” Abrams said in the news release. “Sometimes spare in color, sometimes punctuated by vivid bursts, her compositions create interwoven elements of movement and form that leave us with an emotional connection to the landscape.”
The exhibition takes its title from a poem by Emily Dickinson, “There’s a certain Slant of light,” in which shifting light alters perception and mood. Similarly, said organizers, “Harlow’s work invites viewers to experience nature not as a fixed image, but as a dynamic and deeply felt presence—one shaped by time, weather, and memory.”
Harlow is a Vermont-based multidisciplinary artist. In addition to her studio practice, she has worked extensively in landscape and garden design, the influence of which seems evident in her integration of natural materials into her artwork.
“A Certain Slant of Light” marks the first time her parallel creative practices have been brought together in a single installation.
Abrams is a contemporary artist based in southern Vermont. Since relocating from Manhattan in 2008, he has drawn deeply on the region’s landscape, light, and atmosphere, incorporating these elements into his work and curatorial perspective.
“Michaela Harlow: A Certain Slant of Light” is on view through July 5. On Saturday, May 23, at 7 p.m., BMAC will host a special exhibition tour and conversation with Harlow and Abrams. The event is free and open to BMAC members at the Benefactor level and above; advance registration is required. Register at brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.