Maureen Gallace: Clear Day at The MoMA PS1

For more than 25 years, Maureen Gallace (b. 1960) has painted genre scenes drawn from the American landscape and still life traditions. Her small canvases and panels most commonly depict rural pastorals and coastlines, typically featuring nondescript barns or cottages amid dunes and foliage in settings that evoke holiday cards and vacation snapshots.

Gallace’s paintings, however, unsettle the reassuring sentimentality of such pictures. Situated on sunny bluffs and among verdant yards, her buildings can appear at turns inviting and inaccessible, sometimes lacking doors or windows. Paths meander through lush gardens, but may also lead the viewer astray; infinite ocean vistas collapse into shallow, intimate compositions. From the outset, Gallace has deployed a range of abstract tools to complicate the romantic enticements of her subject matter, giving rise to a quietly remarkable body of work. This exhibition features the largest group of Gallace’s paintings yet assembled.