Annie Harris Massie: Fleeting

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to announce its last show of 2023: Fleeting, an exhibition of new work by longtime gallery artist Annie Harris Massie.

The masterful oil and encaustic works for which Annie Harris Massie is known are an homage to the enigmatic quality and transformative nature of light, her ultimate subject matter. The artist’s  new body of work represents an even deeper exploration into the ephemeral, transitory, and elusive facets of light.

Massie’s oil landscapes were developed from small en plein air studies, when, according to the artist, “the light was ever changing and the feeling of catching momentary, fleeting glimpses was pressing.” The artist’s fascination with the dematerializing and transfiguring effects of light is evident in these works. Massie notes, “I’m interested in the way light reveals, obscures, and dissolves form. Light is more interesting to me than the more tangible subject matter of landscapes like trees and fields.”

Accompanying her oil paintings in Fleeting are oil and encaustic works on panel, which depict elements taken from the natural world: cut flora and fauna. These pieces more closely resemble still lifes than landscapes, yet again illustrate Massie’s remarkable ability to capture the way light abstracts and dissipates the forms of her subjects.

Material concerns are also evident in Massie’s work. She notes, “I like the contrast between the fragility of the flower/plant material and the monumentality of the large panel, the feeling of permanence, preservation, and plasticity that oil paint and encaustic bring to the work.” Through her deft manipulations of the material substances of oil and encaustic, she beautifully reveals the immaterial, ephemeral, fleeting nature of light.

Annie Harris Massie received her B.A. in Studio Art from Hollins College and M.A. in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her works grace numerous significant private and public collections, including that of the Boars Head Resort, Dominion Energy, the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, and the Bank of the James in Lynchburg among others.