NORTH GALLERY

ON THE ROAD

ELLEN WAGENER’S ARIZONA LANDSCAPES

At first glance, Ellen Wagener's works look like photographs. Crisp lines of crops splay out in agricultural landscapes set below dreamy ― or sometimes nightmarish ― skies. They look like snapshots taken out of the window of a car as you pass through the endless prairies and farmland. But these are not simply re-hashings of photo-realism or Pop Art. The really interesting element of Wagener’s landscapes is not their realism, but their ability to make us question our own perception and memories of the land. What would normally appear as straight-forward landscapes, upon closer inspection, reveal elements of tension, power and emotion not always found in traditional scenes. The perception of what a landscape is, in its most basic form, has become Wagener's primary interest. "Landscape isn't just a formal idea," she says. "It's all kinds of things. And sometimes it changes slowly, sometimes quickly." Excerpted from The Cultivated Desert at Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa Arts Center by Gina Cavallo Collins.