English: In this exhibition, abstraction is an entry point to consider daily encounters marked by abundance, loss, transcendence, and a dream-like passage of time. An under-recognized painter and innovator of mid-20th century experimental cinema, Sara Kathryn Arledge (1911-1998) was a prolific artist who emphasized the eerie in the mundane and the disorienting in the beautiful. Arledge worked at the margins of art history, shaping her practice with idiosyncratic personal myth. She is considered a pioneer of ciné-dance (dance made uniquely by and for the medium of film) and was one of the first to film dance movement to “extend the nature of painting to include time.” The exhibition includes over 60 of Arledge's vivid works on paper, seven short films, and a selection of hand-painted glass transparencies. The work quietly suggests that subjective, “alternative” normals are equally legitimate.

Sara Kathryn Arledge: Serene for the Moment has been produced with generous support from the Pasadena Art Alliance, with thanks to the Sara Kathryn Arledge Memorial Trust. In conjunction with the exhibition, a book will be published in autumn 2019 by Armory Press, an imprint of the Armory, and X Artists Books, with generous support provided by the Hillenburg Family.

Photo by Ian Byers-Gamber. Courtesy of Armory Center for the Arts.