Show Preview | Elsa Sroka

Santa Fe, NM
Sorrel Sky Gallery, July 3-31

This story was featured in the July 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

THE FIRST PAINTING Elsa Sroka created after temporarily moving her studio into her Denver home to comply with coronavirus restrictions was UNCHARTED WATERS, depicting three birds in a small boat. The title suggests an uncertain journey, yet the water is calm and the fluffy birds seem undisturbed. Birds have begun to appear more frequently in Sroka’s art in recent years. While she’s not sure why she’s compelled to paint them, for her they symbolize freedom and hope. And something more personal as well: As she worked on her first bird-in-a-boat piece a couple of years ago, she felt as if her late father was standing at her side, guiding her through the painting. “It was really special to me,” she says.

Permission to Be, Sroka’s solo show opening this month at Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe, presents new paintings from a series the artist calls The Unexpected. The contemporary works feature familiar animals including cows—which have become iconic in her art—comfortably hanging out in surprising settings. It’s the kind of imagery that can emerge, the artist says, when she drops any expectations and gives herself permission to just be, which in her case means painting whatever feels most appealing and right.

“Elsa has made the choice to view these unusual times as an opportunity to let new doors of inspiration open, experimenting with how it may influence her work,” notes gallery owner Shanan Campbell. “Her paintings can be seen as humorous, but they also have a deeper effect, gently pushing our own imagination, sparking our own creativity. Her work captured my attention since the first time I saw it.” An artist’s reception is set for Friday, July 3, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., with the exhibition on view through the end of the month. Also at the gallery, opening on July 24, is a one-man show featuring jeweler and Santa Fe native Lawrence Baca.

Raised in Fort Collins, CO, and primarily self-taught, Sroka has rented space for a number of years in a Denver compound of artists’ studios. When the state’s stay-at-home directive was issued this spring, she hauled paints and panels home. But it wasn’t the same: distractions popped up, her makeshift workspace was small, and she didn’t always have what she needed at hand. As an antidote to her frustration, she delved more deeply into the whimsical, incongruous imagery that delights and creatively challenges her. Now back in her studio—her “happy place”—she continues to explore this series.

Sroka’s talent, including her ability to infuse an image with humor while making the unexpected seem perfectly natural, earned her a public art commission that she completed last year. Based on an original painting, DOUBLE DIP is a 30-by-12-foot ceramic-tile mural on the side of the newly opened Spur at Iliff Station apartment complex in the Denver suburb of Aurora. In true Sroka style, it depicts a cow standing nonchalantly in a wading pool, with another cow standing on her back. “I like playfulness,” the artist says. “When I’m working on something, if it makes me smile or chuckle, that’s when I know it’s right.” —Gussie Fauntleroy

contact information
505.501.6555
www.sorrelsky.com

This story was featured in the July 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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