Biography
Andra Samelson’s work explores the relationship of microcosm and macrocosm, the celestial and terrestrial. Her imagery is often associated with molecular and galactic systems. She is interested in the movement of constellations with their regular and irregular orbits, charged particles and cells swimming under a microscope, and the electrochemical impulses in our complex brains.
In her recent paintings she is engaged in bringing the instinctive, immediate, and improvisational qualities of drawing to the process of painting. With various tools she draws into her paint, spontaneously creating a layered, linear matrix. The biomorphic forms that emerge show the traces of their evolution. She is drawn to asymmetries and irregularities that produce what is surprising and idiosyncratic.
Her lines make reference to visible and invisible pathways we travel in time, in memory and thought, and to all the interconnecting, multi-layered networks we traverse as they come together to make the momentary configurations and forms in our lives. Samelson is interested in the linear patterns in nature from the fabric of the smallest leaf to the invisible lines in the sky made by of planetary orbits and migratory routes.