Susan McAlister: On the Way 

Installation shots to be posted following 5/28 opening.

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to present On the Way, a solo exhibition of new work by longtime gallery artist Susan McAlister. The exhibition opens with a reception on Thursday, May 28th from 5:00 to 7:00pm, and will be on view at the gallery through Sunday, July 12th.

Rooted in a sustained engagement with land and place, McAlister’s new body of work reflects on the interconnectedness of past, present, and future. Drawing inspiration from Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow—“The world as it is would always be a reminder of the world that was, and of the world that is to come”—the exhibition considers land as an evolving, regenerative presence, rather than a static subject.

McAlister writes: “My work is rooted in a love of land. It speaks to the hallowed nature of place and the importance of land ethic. Through a practice that includes paint on canvas, large-format gestural drawings and multi-dimensional assemblages, I seek to capture the essence of the natural environment and interrogate the history of place.”

The artist’s practice begins directly on land, where she journals, sketches, and gathers ephemera from the environment. These initial encounters form the foundation for a studio practice rooted in materiality. Charcoal derived from forest fires—used both in its raw state and ground into paint—functions as a site-specific pigment, embedding traces of environmental memory directly into the surface. Layers of paint, ink, graphite and other materials are used to simultaneously construct and deconstruct the image. Shapes are both free hand and digitally manipulated, representational and non representational, hand and machine-cut. Each mark establishes its own identity while contributing to the whole. 

The resulting works translate fleeting sensations and layers of memory into complex, tactile compositions. As McAlister notes: “Through an intuitive process of arranging marks and materials, I point to a persistent hope in the regenerative nature of the land.” In On the Way, her works function as portals into the natural world—junctions of place and time that remind the viewer of what has been, and the precarious beauty of what is to come.

Born and raised in the Hunt Country of Virginia and now based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Susan McAlister earned her B.A. from Davidson College, where she studied alongside numerous esteemed artists including Herb Jackson and Eric Aho. McAlister was recently invited to return to her alma mater for the distinguished alumni exhibition, Homecoming (2023), and her work can be found in significant public and private collections across the United States.