Innermost

For the month of April the Harrison Gallery is exhibiting Stephanie Spay's oil paintings. Whether she is painting figures, interiors, or still lifes, Spay's work explores the interior as a metaphor– seeing her subject matter and external world as a starting point to delve deep into the expression of the inner self.

Spay has always loved painting people, especially women in interiors. Whether staging her figures or finding inspiration watching friends and strangers go about their lives, Spay always interjects herself into her subject's perspective to evoke a specific mood or explore a feeling.

"There's a psychological aspect to the interior," Says Spay. "That's what I'm grasping at. There's so much you can say with how you place a figure in an interior. It is cinematic."

When Spay began this body of work she developed methods of observing that allowed her to find inspiration in her subject’s gestures. For paintings with several figures she set up a camera to video her subjects interacting. This allowed her to study their postures and choose which of their gestures captured their personalities best.

For other works, she went to her friends' homes and followed them around, entering the daily routines and spaces that shape them. "These are people I know and have known since we were children," Says Spay. "Painting them pushes me to think of who they are, and because I know them it pulls me in and I become more invested in the work because I care for these women.”

Spay will sometimes invent parts of her painted interiors such as wallpaper or symbolic objects to evoke personal and collective memories. This body of work invites viewers to slow down and reflect on the unseen architecture of their own lives and their own innermost beings.

The show is available to see anytime in March, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, and available on our online gallery.