The Artist
I paint about the animating consciousness that is in the nature of all things. What makes a frog a frog, a flower a flower? The reality is not just in the way a thing looks. All that is essential is invisible to the eye. I hold a paradox such as this to be true. My work examines what some might call the absurd or the impossible.
My mind will try to create a spectral nature, a ghost-like reality for a viewer to perceive. There is a perpetual hunger in me to invent the unrecognizable. I work to undo the accepted perceptual “realities” that block the infinity of human visual experience.
Ironically, most recently, my painting has taken a turn toward realism!
I find myself juxtaposing the more abstract and experimental figurative work of 35 years with a new almost photographic portraiture. How the two bodies of work will integrate, or refuse to, is an artistic experiment I am looking forward to executing.
The “animating consciousness” mentioned early in this statement, is still what I am most sensitive to and searching for in my portraits. My studies of powerful creative individuals draw me ever closer to my own revelations of a personal spiritual awareness.
The opposition of realism and abstraction, in painting the human figure,
Has come to me, at age 62, as a sincere, at times frightening, surprise!
I feel I could never have reached this point in representational painting had I made a plan to do so.
Saundra Fleming 10/19/2021
Seattle, WA
Founding member of Hole in the Air, an international art movement of 15 members who strive for radical collaboration and experimental process.
Featured Exhibitions
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HITA Does Berlin
November 2023
Berlin
The work in HOLE IN THE AIR DOES BERLIN embodied exploratory, psychological and speculative themes and featured more than 40 small works on paper.
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Finding Form in the Invisible
July 6-29, 2023
Seattle
Each piece contains the metaphysical substrate of matter, and of energy—a relationship of the two in Fleming’s intuition. This is the first work in ages that is calling her to slow down, to paint night after night toward an approximation of what exists and does not exist at the same time. In her words, “this work is frankly absurd and 100% necessary to move on with my philosophy of living”.
Professional Experience
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1992 - Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1982 - Bachelor of Science in Psychology, cum laude. The University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
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2023 - Finding Form in the Invisible, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2018 - Falling Parallelograms of Air - A Psychotherapist’s Dream, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2009 - Selected Works, The Parlor, Austin, TX
1992 - “The Metaphysical Grandma Bakes a Butterball Paradox and Gertrude Stein Picks Raspberries With Aunt Bee,” Blue Ryder Theater, Chicago, IL
1992 - “Aqua Toast,” School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA Thesis Show, Chicago, IL
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2025 - Divine Thresholds, Saundra Fleming and Gregory Engel Columbia City Gallery, Seattle WA
2024 - Sleep Walkers featuring Jonathan Menashy, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2023 - Hole in the Air Does Berlin, Culterum Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2023 - Reverance In Uncertainty, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2023 - Negative Capability - The Artist as Healer, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2022 - The House of Imperfection, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2022 - Art and Cake Magazine Visual Art and Poetry, Los Angeles, CA
2022 - Cladogram: 2nd KMA International Juried Biennial, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
2021 - Ultra, Van Der Plas Gallery, New York, NY
2020 - Whopper: The Metaphysical World of Saundra Fleming and Tall Tales of Margaret Tylczak, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2020 - Seattle Art Fair Deconstructed, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2020 - Here We Are, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019 - The Other Art Fair by Saatchi Art, Dallas, TX
2019 - CoCA’s Old Is Not A Dirty Word - Dykes Over 50, Seattle, WA
2019 - Pop Figuration in Flux with Darren Harper, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2019 - Pictureswordspictures with Kevin Marshall, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2018 - Artist Trust Annual Auction, Featured Work, Seattle, WA
2017 - Multiple Group Shows, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2016 to present - Place, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015 - All Member Review, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015 - Literary Series, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015 - (A) Muse, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015 - Kolag: About Face, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015 - Out of Bounds, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2015 - All Member Review, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2014 - New Works, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2014 - Into the Wild, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2014 - Unbalanced, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
2012 - “Ars Poetica” Show, Collective Visions Gallery, Bremerton, WA
2004 - “Women and Trauma,” Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004 - “Holiday Punch,” Studio 107, Austin, TX
2002 - “New Work,” Gallery Lombardi, Austin, TX
2001 - “Artfarm Invitational,” Artfarm Gallery, Austin, TX
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2004 to 2020 - Adjunct Professor, Austin Community College
1991-1992 - Graduate Student Instructor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
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2023 - Hole in the Air Does Berlin, Culterum Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2023 - Negative Capability - The Artist as Healer, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA - International Art Exhibition
2016 - Literary Series (Ongoing), Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA
1992 - “Consonants! No Vowels!!”, Chicago, IL
1992 - “Burletta-Mopping The Toes With Relish,” Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery II, Chicago, IL
1991 - “Mood Swing Faux Pas Show,” N.N.W.A.C. Gallery, Chicago, IL
1991 - “The Sound of Music—The Von Trapp Family Experience,” TabulaRas Gallery, Chicago, IL
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2020 - Factfullness, Europe
2020 - Aesthetica Magazine, York, U.K.
2004 - “Matlock,” Lungfull Magazine, Brooklyn, NY
2004 - “My Feet Were Higher Than My Head When I Dropped,” Lungfull Magazine, Brooklyn, NY
2003 - “Frogs,” No Roses Review, Chicago, IL
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2017 to present - Gallery 110, Seattle, WA
2016 to present - ArtLifting, Boston, MA
2014 to present - Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA