Untitled

archival pigment photograph

59 x 39 inches

Espace Croisé

archival pigment photograph

39 x 31 inches

As the days start to get longer and there is more time to enjoy the sun, Themes+Projects gallery presents a new exhibition by Maia Flore for the spring season titled, Scenes from the Sun.  

The sun is something that unites us all through our shared experiences of its light, presence, and warmth. In extended times of its absence, we may find ourselves feeling a little lost and blue. Scenes from the Sun continues Maia's exploration of narrative-based images that welcome, intrigue, and enchant the viewer through seeing her subject's interaction within the landscape. Maia describes the sun as something that helps to center her, as it is the center of our universe. She says, “It reminds me to find beauty in every day and not to forget the light that is within ourselves. The sun makes me move every day, so the darkness will not overtake me.” 

Scenes from the Sun marks Maia's fourth exhibition with Themes+Projects gallery. Past exhibitions were Flowing in Stillness (2020), Play Time (2018), and Sleep Elevations (2014). 

Josefin Lundahl

In Maia Flore’s photography, the scenery transfixes the viewer, attuning them to the graceful contortions of each scene. Like disparate fragments of a collective past that we don’t share but can still recognize, her work demands empathy. Eerily familiar, yet floating away like effervescent dreams that begin to disappear the moment  you open your eyes.

In her earlier work from Scandinavia and Southern Europe, a sense of a playful color-coded whimsicality makes it a challenge to pinpoint the specificity of the characters: where they are from, or where they belong if not in these scenes. In her later series, such as Scenes from the Sun, her subject fully emerges from that playfulness into a serene place where the setting hugs the figure warmly;  where the Californian sun is an active partner, a symbiotic couple at play. There’s a generous space that she holds for these places that are not her original home, but rather places that she has allowed to become more than temporary residence. She has loved here.

Over the years Flore has stepped out of the studio and is now immersed in the land. The narrative performance elements seen in Vénus and Espace croisé, are now the primary story within the images, versus digital reconstructions, and they are staggering. It’s as if she outgrew the safety and predictability inside a studio and lay all her trust in herself, her command of space around her, the sun, and her own shadow. One recalls Agnes Varda, who said, “If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes.” In Flore’s photographs, I find an alternative universe where play is an ageless law, and the figures are falling into a trust fall with nature.

Currently residing in Los Angeles, Flore’s lens has matured LA for me. The commonly shared idea of LA as the la la land where unreachable dreams can come true has gradually diminished, maturing from her work into what it really is: a place where dreamers go, a surreal landscape within reach.

Her evocative images capture the hazy, unique, California light that is redolent of pollution, sand, or ocean mist all at once. I wonder if her life in California has roughened the edges, or if it’s just about us all growing up.

Josefin Lundahl - Curator, Creativity Explored

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