“Holding Ground” at the Savage Godfrey Gallery

     This April, Savage Godfrey Gallery presents Holding Ground, a three-artist exhibition exploring the relationship between landscape, memory, and place through the distinct practices of Nancy Cloonan, Deborah Howard, and Ilana Manolson.Together, their work reflects a shared commitment to observing and honoring the environments that shape both their practice and perspective.

Nancy Cloonan’s paintings translate the overlooked details of daily life into layered, abstract compositions that feel both familiar and elusive. Reason being, she pulls shape and pattern from photographs taken during daily walks throughout Plymouth County. Picket fences, asphalt patches, and reflective puddles are translated into colorful forms, combined and layered into Cloonan’s wonderfully inviting abstractions. Nancy Cloonan lives and paints in Plymouth, MA.

Through a process of painting, wiping, and sanding, Howard builds quiet, layered landscapes that reflect the shifting light and atmosphere of Cape Cod’s marshes and tidal flats. Her restrained compositions reveal depth through subtle mark-making, where traces of underpainting and gesture remain visible beneath the surface. Deborah Howard lives and paints in Barnstable, MA.

When Ilana Manolson stands before a plant to paint it, she brings with her a rare double vision — that of the artist and the botanist. This layered perspective infuses her paintings with both visual poetry and scientific attentiveness, revealing the quiet complexity of the natural world. Manolson’s work is rooted in the cyclical rhythms of the wetlands that surround her home in Concord, MA. Her compositions center on native plant life, tracing moments of growth and transition with a sensitivity to the larger systems these plants inhabit.

The opening reception of Holding Ground will be on Friday, May 8th from 6-8 pm, Nancy Cloonan, Deborah Howard and Ilana Manolson will be in attendance. Our reception will coincide with the neighboring James Library Art Gallery’s reception for Scott Ketchum: The Wild Iris.