Toni Lane + Alanna Reeves 

“In Search of Solid Ground”

July 10 – August 28, 2021

Through painting, drawing, and printmaking, Art Enables resident artist Toni Lane and visiting artist Alanna Reeves explore themes of displacement, vulnerability, identity, and the effects of identity discontinuity on mental health and wellbeing. In these works, historical and cultural forces manifest as shifting landscapes to be navigated and questioned. Lane and Reeves sort through both what’s longed for and unwanted, foreign and familiar, past and present, seeking self-knowledge and stability.

 In Toni Lane’s drawings, stylized human figures are central, and arms and hands are expressive and urgent messengers. They prod, embrace and make desperate requests for help. Some of Lane’s subjects are at risk of drowning – in churning waters, unwelcome attention, or under the emotional weight of circumstance. In one work, we can see the water is symbolic – prescription medication bottles tumble under the surface of waves rising in surreal fashion inside the interior of a home, an arm outthrust in a plea for assistance. In other works, the arms are a safe harbor: the embrace of a lover or the overlapping touches of three generations of women in “My Grandmother’s Hands.” Lane communicates emotions directly in her work, but she also utilizes more subtle signifiers. In “Mal-Treat (Know the Sign)”, the raised fist is not a sign of aggression. Rather, the thumb tucked under closed fingers indicates the signal for requesting help in situations of domestic violence. In all of her works, Lane renders potent human desires, needs, and struggles with immediacy, sensitive to the ebb and flow of traversing one’s own emotional and psychological terrain.

 In Alanna Reeves’ paintings and prints, the landscape is more literal but no more certain. Monochromatic trees and plants call on a specific place – the partly unknown homeland of the artist’s ancestors. Mixed with accumulated grids and book pages, this imagery references guides from which the artist has learned and deviated. The components are shuffled, dreamlike and liquid in their mingling. In two paintings - “Lake Hebron” and “Montego” - a figure reaches through actual water and ice to orient itself. In other works, short lines of handwritten text float in open space. Dwarfed by their surroundings, their smallness gives them a quiet, tentative presence. These are fragments pulled from the private spaces of an introspective mind, reflections on the meaning of identity within and without a community with whom to share it. “What is mine?” one print asks, continuing, “Nothing has been given so I have to create it.” Reeves’ use of the ghost print – the second passing in the monotype process that yields a fainter deposit of ink – is an apt visual rhyme for the ghosts of the past. Knowledge diffused through generations reaches us in ethereal traces, incomplete guideposts in the search for solid ground.

Public gallery hours: Thursdays 5 – 7 p.m  and Saturdays 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

"In Search of Solid Ground" reviewed in the Washington Post

*Visiting artist artwork will not be clickable or available for purchase after exhibition closes.

Toni Lane 
Mal-Treat (Know the Sign), 2021 
ink on paper
24 x 19 in 
$450

Toni Lane
The Black National Anthem, 2021
ink and colored pencil on paper
24 x 19 in
Sold

Toni Lane says that her art focuses on social realties – the common and uncommon joys and struggles of everyday life. Toni utilizes a multitude of mediums and materials to bring each piece and each story into its “fullness and truth.” She creates her artwork from both her imagination and lived experiences.  Toni’s work explores numerous themes, including homelessness, race and class discrimination, happiness, gender and family, among others.  In 2020, 6 of her paintings and drawings were acquired by the Library of Congress as part of a special pandemic-related collection. Toni Lane is based in Washington, DC and has been a resident artist at Art Enables since 2013. See more of her work on her Art Enables artist page.


Alanna Reeves is a multidisciplinary artist from Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where she earned a BFA in Illustration with a Concentration in History of Art and Visual Culture. Reeves’ work investigates realizations of identity, the hyphen-American’s pursuit and idealization of the homeland, and grounding practices. Work made in response to these themes is primarily informed by her own experience as an American of Afro-Caribbean and European descent and is made visual through a variety of media including painting, printmaking, fiber arts, and curation of archival photo imagery.  alanna-reeves.com
 

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