MMoCA Triennial

Landscape seems to be the buzz word of the last twenty years. Paintings about landscape—whether they are the ethereal musings of Laura Owens or the gestural exercises of Dana Schutz—have explored what it means and what it looks like to be natural. Wisconsin-artist Sofia Arnold is following in the footsteps of both Owens and Schutz by making her dramatic paintings set in the lush, lascivious landscapes.For the last few years, Arnold has been a student of TL Solien, and one can see the influence Solien’s particular brand of emotional neo-realism has had on this young painter. Solien’s work is often characterized by an obsessive exploration of all things human: emotions, family history, marriage relations. Within Arnold’s work, one can see the same focus on the human, even if the figures are sometimes animal-like and folklore-inspired.