Extract/Abstract: Landscape and the Architecture of Memory
In June of 2022, Léni Paquet-Morante was walking along a trail in a forest in Halibut Point State Park in Massachusetts, when she came across a scene that piqued her attention. Just off the path, not too far into the brush, was a pool of water surrounded by large rocks and tall, thin trees whose thick canopy allowed only a dappling of sunlight to shine through. The purpose of this excursion into nature, like the many Paquet-Morante had taken before, was to find stimulating scenes to capture on canvas en plein air (outside). As the artist visually combed over the landscape, she recognized the challenges of depicting this particular setting in paint: the excessive layer of debris covering the surface of the pool, muddling the difference between the water and its surroundings, and the complicated light that defined the structurally interesting forms of the rocks and trees. Nevertheless, she set up her easel and began to paint.
The result was Vernal Pool, Shade (2022), the first work that visitors encounter in Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract / Abstract. Using a loose and abstract representation of the landscape before her, she transformed the complex scene through an artistic exercise in shape making and light rendering. The rough and uneven terrain is brought into balance with each decisive brushstroke and swatch of color: The vigorous brushwork of the green canopy is complemented by the smooth, broad brown brushstrokes of the rocky forest floor and pool, creating a harmonious and striking visual effect. This work encapsulates Paquet-Morante’s commitment to process-driven imagery and serves as an apt introduction to the exhibition. Through it, the artist reveals her consistent exploration of the limits of her materials and her embrace of challenging subjects. Each gallery in the exhibition is a testament to her process.
Among the advantages of the unique layout of Bainbridge House are the sight lines from one gallery into another, which entice visitors with previews of what lies ahead. The second gallery holds some of the exhibition’s larger and more intentionally abstract paintings, and the sight line from the first gallery to the second gallery’s fireplace provides a glimpse of one such work before the visitor enters the room: the dreamlike Winter Sky on a Shallow (2021). This work illustrates the heart of Paquet-Morante’s process: Inspired by the refractive properties of water, she extracts the most salient elements of a natural scene and then fragments, enlarges, and rearranges them to create vibrant abstract images that evoke a multisensorial experience of that landscape. In doing so, she taps into the way the mind recalls scenes, privileging certain components while contorting others—the intensity of the light, the color of the leaves, or the way ripples warp images reflected on the water’s surface.
Spanning various media—including acrylic painting, ink drawing, and monoprints—the works in the third gallery reveal the ways in which the manipulation of medium and substrate plays a role in Paquet-Morante’s practice. Commanding this space is the acrylic painting Shallows in Yellow and Black (2023), one of the artist’s first diptychs. This work came after Paquet-Morante made an experimental series of small monoprints, not on view in the exhibition, in which she used blind, intuitive mark-making and the paper’s surface beneath to define various forms. The white substrate not only became part of the final image but also shaped the composition as a brushstroke would. This push and pull of substrate and medium is also seen in the large-scale Monoprint and Flotsam series included in this gallery.
The final room turns to what Paquet-Morante calls “the architecture of memory.” For the nine ink-on-paper drawings featured in this gallery, each made in her studio, the artist used a blind-drawing process in which she engaged her subconscious, recalling natural elements from memory. Guided by her intuition, the drawn lines emerge as familiar forms such as leaves, twigs, or bodies of water that were once encountered on her nature walks. Like her approach to abstract painting, the creation of these drawings taps into the way that, in making memories and dreams, the mind favors certain tactile or visual experiences over others. Paquet-Morante likens this to “how a keen memory of a pile of pebbles found and handled during a long hike becomes the most important part of it.” This body of work solidifies the connections between artistic practice, image making, and memory creation found in Paquet-Morante’s practice. The blending of these arenas is the through line that anchors this exhibition.
Léni Paquet-Morante: Extract / Abstract is on view through November 9, 2025.
The exhibition is made possible by the Virginia and Bagley Wright, Class of 1946, Program Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art, and the Curtis W. McGraw Foundation.
