Elisabeth Meyer — NONFICTION; the art of the peaceable kingdom: Part I

Peep is pleased to present an installation of new monotypes by artist Elisabeth Meyer, NONFICTION; the art of the peaceable kingdom: Part I. These poetic, disorienting prints explore her personal experiences with nature and compromised relations between people. It is fitting, Meyer notes, to be showing these works for the first time in Philadelphia, considering the lifelong connection she has felt with the many iterations of Edward Hick's 19th-century painting The Peaceable Kingdom.

Hicks, a Pennsylvania Quaker, made over a hundred versions of this painting over the course of his life. Repeated images are also inherent in print media, especially in monotypes. A "once" image may lead into the next by way of a "ghost" image, whose whole is only revealed after printing. There's truth-seeking in this method, as there is no end for the quest, no perfect image, just a trial again and again. This repetitiveness expresses its own kind of innocent longing. Meyer understands Hicks's effort not only to make the image different and new, but also to share a message that is urgent, insistent, and bears repeating.

Elisabeth Meyer's new monotypes embody a roiling melancholy, in the mind and in the heart, as a collection of memories. These works follow a non-linear narrative; each is a component piece contingent on the other for its consummate wholeness. This project is a demonstration of the growing chasm between us and our environment, and a vocal defense of nature.

This series was created this spring during Meyer's print residency at OehmeGraphics with master printer Sue Oehme. 

Elisabeth Meyer lives and works in upstate New York. She received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and she teaches at Cornell University. Residencies include the Ucross Foundation, MacDowell Colony, the Baer Art Centre, and the Scuola di Grafica di Venezia. Her interest in international studies has earned her many grants for interdisciplinary research and collaboration with artists abroad, including in the U.K., China, and India. Her role as a faculty mentor to students in Cornell's Rawlings Presidential Research Scholars program has been essential in promoting artists within the university. Curatorial endeavors have produced exhibits with a focus on print media exploring the relationship between image and text.