Gold Grid, oil on canvas, 40″x48″, 2024
Through Line
A solo exhibition of paintings by Stephanie Dennis
Featuring work from the past two years, Through Line explores Dennis’s use of line as both a structural device and a conceptual thread—one that weaves through themes of personal history, memory, and our connection to place. “I find lines carry meaning,” Dennis explains. “They may infer an edge or boundary, indicate direction or proximity, and the quality of a line can express a spectrum of weight and emotion.” Dennis combines elements of drawing and painting to craft abstractions that serve as a visual vocabulary of landmarks. Pared-down forms—rendered in layered graphite, colored pencil, or oil on canvas—convey both control and vulnerability, strength and fragility. “I’m fascinated by how we find a sense of home within ourselves, especially when external surroundings are constantly shifting,” she says. “I believe we all have internal touchstones. These paintings are my attempt to give them form. With each successive image, a through line emerges that tells its own story.”
Artist Bio
Stephanie Dennis is an artist living and working in Oakland, California. She received her MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Washington and her BA from San Diego State University. She has shown her work across the country and has taught painting at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Washington. She completed residencies at Vermont Studio Center and KALA Art Institute in Berkeley, CA. Her abstract drawings and paintings investigate ideas about place and belonging, and often depict tenuously-structured forms that speak to our sense of vulnerability.
