Natalie Wadlington, Swimming at Night, 2023; Hand-Embellished, Signed, and Numbered Limited Edition Print

Natalie Wadlington is a Brooklyn-based artist who taps into her personal memories to create emotionally potent scenes. Charged with pensiveness, wonderment and a childlike tenderness, her paintings are borne out of a layered process, which begins with the artist digitally combining photographs that she has taken—of herself, flowers, sunsets, and so forth—with stock imagery. Although these collages are not replicated in the final works, they become visual and metaphorical starting points that are then reimagined on the canvas. Lusciously rendered figures and objects take on elusive meanings in Wadlington’s work, bringing to mind the hieroglyphs of ages past. Wadlington’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition, titled Places That Grow, at Dallas Contemporary in 2022. 

Created while living in Texas, Swimming at Night is inspired by the wildlife that the artist encountered during her daily walks. The animals recalled Wadlington’s childhood memories of swimming by moonlight in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, a pastime that had been associated with both fear and exhilaration. For this print series, the artist will hand embellish each work by adding metallic details to various details in the image, such as the moon, stars, swimsuit and water ripples. 

Of the importance of combating climate change, Wadlington notes, “I’m from Modesto in California’s Central Valley, an agricultural basin that provides an estimated 25% of the nation’s food. The water crisis is becoming acute all across the state, and the agriculture industry of the Central Valley is in trouble. They source their water from the Sierra Nevadas, which are increasingly depleted every year from that drainage; this is made worse by a lack of adequate snowfall and forest fires. Now, many of the places from my childhood are burnt down. I reflect on how the California I grew up with is gone, both ecologically and economically. We continue to live with the consequences of unchecked corporate greed, political shortsightedness, and resource theft that began with the onset of colonization.”

In support of global reforestation, ten trees will be planted for each print sale of works in this series commissioned on the occasion of EXPO CHICAGO 2023. The artist will also receive 50% of net proceeds from each sale.

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*Unframed prints ship within 1-3 weeks.
*Framed prints ship within 3-6 weeks.