Wonder Lands

A new series of encaustic paintings by Elise Wagner

As a curator and gallerist, something of extraordinary fascination and privilege is observing over time the development and growth of an artist as they navigate their career. Sometimes like the shedding of a skin, leaving behind what was known and comfortable to explore changing ideas, and philosophies through content and medium choice. Elise Wagner and her latest series Wonder Lands is exemplary of this process of departure and arrival. She bravely steps forward with this new series of paintings, sharing her love of not only her new home but her passion for the natural world and its profound gift of beauty.

This series, Wonder Lands is her own self-described “love letter” to the Pacific Northwest. Wagner merges her incredible skills and knowledge of the ancient process of encaustic painting with abstraction, this time utilizing the inescapable and dramatic landscape we are fortunate to live within, as inspiration. Her work, always rooted in science, is still an exploration of topography and geology, but now finding anchor in horizon line, the mystical place where sky meets water and then its followed connection to land.

Beginning this series in 2020, it reflects the dramatic changes for her, including her move to the small river town on the banks of the Columbia River, Astoria, Oregon.  Within this body of work that has slowly been coaxed from surface over four years, Wagner brings exciting, small-scale yet evocative pieces, leaning heavily into geography. Each gem-like piece evolved at its own pace with layers of sheer color applied, taken away and etched into with patience, by the hand of the artist to reveal a sense of mysticism and reverence for the land. A true “love letter” indeed.

Teri Sund, Imogen Gallery

June 2024

Artist Elise Wagner: Coast to Coast

With a June show at Astoria’s Imogen Gallery, the Oregon encaustic painter from New Jersey comes full-circle.

JUNE 11, 2024 By BRIAN LIBBY for Oregon ArtsWatch, Arts & Culture News

This month marks a new chapter in the career of artist Elise Wagner, long known for her encaustic paintings, with the opening of her June show “Wonder Lands” at Astoria’s Imogen Gallery. After more than a quarter-century in Portland, Wagner has also relocated to this picturesque, historic town where Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific. But it’s not the first time this New Jersey native has changed course, and her arrival in Astoria arguably marks, as for the explorers, completion of a coast-to-coast journey.

“Wonder Lands,” which continues at Imogen through July 8, is a self-described love letter to the northern Oregon coast, blending abstraction with evocations of topography, meteorology, and geology. The paintings’ titles, such as “King Tide,” “Above the Bar,” and “Surge,” indicate an artist seeing the landscape with fresh eyes and a palpable sense of awe.