Freight + Volume presents All in Alive, a solo exhibition of paintings by Emily Noelle Lambert. On
view April 8th through May 7th.

The forested buzzing of life that surrounds her studio in Southern New Hampshire constitute the organic inspirations which find their place in the chatoyant canvases of Emily Noelle Lambert. Fascinated by that qualitas occulta which makes nature not only something observed, but which observes the observer as she walks through wooded paths and draws the studies that constitute the raw material for her paintings, Lambert recreates the experience of a sentient environment replete with movement, change, and subtle shifts in energy.

The way Lambert translates her daily routine into a sort of ritualistic receptivity is illustrated by the work Up the Hill Trailing. While the cool tones of the work lend everything a nightshade gloom, this depiction of a forested path is both wending towards the horizon and absolutely still, motionless. Somehow, the tones of the colors, the blues, greens, and wisps of purple, become significant unto themselves. While clearly depicting a trail, the vibrancy of the work suggests a plethora of hidden creatures concealed by the features and aspects actually observed in the painting. More than simply looking at the scene, the viewer him- or herself seems to be watched.    

In another work, Walking into It, Lambert’s more animistic leanings come to the fore. Conveying a sense of wonder and mystery reminiscent of light passing through stained glass, Lambert’s luminous palette and interest in the living presence of nature culls together a dreamlike scene that feels epiphanic in its clarity. At once metaphorical and figurative, her painterly textures to not only underscore light’s interpenetration with the tree branches and skyline, but halo her work in a sort of otherworldly elegance. 

Lambert’s work celebrates the experience of moving through landscapes. Her depictions of forested space tessellate a living network that seems continuous with the subject-matter from which her source material derives. Out of this comes less a naturalistic description of nature than a living idea that cuts to the quick of the holistic vision she preserves in washes of acrylic. Across the seasonal cycles which reveal nature’s continual presence, Lambert breathes new life into perceptions that might otherwise be glossed over, documenting the freshness of traversing undiscovered paths.