These paintings offer a metaphysical connection to the world by preserving the spirit of the
landscape where I am from and other natural places I have spent time in. I grew up in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay where my father was a landscape architect, my grandmother a landscape photographer, and my grandfather a wetland scientist. In recent years it has become clear, the tidewater landscape I call home is slowly disappearing because of the bay’s rising sea level eroding the land.

The paintings begin with out-of-focus snapshots I have taken of these places, that are digitally printed on transparent chiffon and stretched on bars. The prints are then overlaid with opaque flat masked airbrushed gradients and thick acrylic paint mixed with sand that I have collected from landscapes. The sand and paint mixture articulates the clouds, water, land, and vegetation in each work. Finally, a layer of thin paint is directionally airbrushed over the textural areas, to create an illusion of light and shadow.

Saskia Fleishman (B. 1995, Baltimore, MD), graduated Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 with a B.F.A. in painting. She has been an artist in residence at The Jentel Foundation, Tongue River Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project, PADA Studios, ChaNorth and Trestle Studios, and a curator in residence at Otis College of Art and Design. Saskia has had recent solo exhibitions at Kates-Ferri Projects (New York, NY), Galleri Urbane (Dallas, TX), Red Arrow (Nashville, TN) and Pentimenti Gallery (Philadelphia, PA). Saskia’s work has also been included in group shows at Baker—Hall (Miami, FL), David B. Smith Gallery (Denver, CO), Dinner Gallery (New York, NY), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (Berlin, DE), Goucher College (Baltimore, MD), Peep Projects (Philadelphia, PA), and The Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (VA), among others. Her work has been featured in Visual Art Source, The Denver Post, Make Magazine, ArtMaze, Root Quarterly, Friend of the Artists, and Galerie Magazine. Saskia is based in Philadelphia, PA.