The Intentional Stranger – Art by Megan Harrison

ART Magazine.  San Antonio, Texas.  By Sarah Luginbill.

The Intentional Stranger by Megan Harrison is an exhibition revolving around pattern and line.  Her pieces are made up of elegantly simple, black bricks on white paper.  The works vary in size, and it is easy to be invited to step into the world of the larger pieces.  The smaller works are better appreciated for their detail by inching closer.

In every picture, Harrison emphasizes pattern.  She plays with ideas of line and curve, causing the bricks to swirl, tumble, or just stand still.  There is momentum in each of her works, which the artist says is reminiscent of someone “moving into the unknown.”

Harrison’s use of charcoal on paper has allowed her the freedom to blend or separate her structures.  In some of her pieces, stark bricks dominate the viewer’s attention.  Other pieces are a mixture of clouds and bricks, with a rolling, moving feel.  The content of her work represents the “physical forces shaping the mind and body.”  These forces are revealed to be both solid and ethereal throughout The Intentional Stranger.

One of her pieces, Hanging Valley,  features two tall palm trees amidst a faint pyramid of bricks.  For the artist, the palm trees symbolize “a remote environment,” such as the desert, from which there is “no turning back.”  The palm trees, like the clouds and bricks, are another element referring to unconscious exploration.

Harrison, Hanging Valley detail

Harrison’s work transforms the viewer into an intentional stranger, one who desires to experience the unknown.  The Intentional Stranger will run until May 20th at the Blue Star Art Gallery in the UTSA Satellite Space.