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Shanahan’s ‘Descant’ Now on Display at ASU’s Looking Glass Gallery, Reception Nov. 6

The work of Elizabeth Shanahan will be featured through Nov. 12 in the Looking Glass Gallery at Appalachian State’s Plemmons Student Union in an exhibition titled, “DESCANT.” The show opened on Oct. 22 and a reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 6 from 6:30-8 p.m. with refreshments during the evening’s ArtWalk event.

Elizabeth Shanahan is an artist in Western North Carolina, known primarily for her built-surface lyrical paintings. She deals with issues of personhood, timelessness and decay. Shanahan has shown work in venues in North Carolina, New York City and Paris, most recently at a reception at the Musée Louvre. Elizabeth graduates a Chancellor’s Scholar with university and art departmental honors from Appalachian State University this December.

“Descant is a Middle English word meaning a variation or comment on a subject, or a countermelody in music. In these exploratory works, the application of paint varies from impasto to bare canvas; and color, along with composition and stroke quality, functions to create a visual language that seeks to transcend words,” Shanahan said. “These paintings follow in the footsteps of millions of works that came before, across all genres of study, and explores what it is to be human, to feel consciously and not to understand.”

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