Nedret Andre Art in Charlestown, MA | Artists

Nedret Andre Art

Artist Statement
Growing up in London, I had the privilege of living among diverse traditions , and I continue to do so in Boston. I paint cross-cultural landscapes with Monetesque brush work which reflect the plural world we live in today. In my work, I reference Anatolian Kilim patterns, Asian ceramic designs, Bruegel’s landscapes, and Boston architecture.
My art does not provide a single all knowing narrative as with the 19th Century landscapes where viewers can project themselves into a deep perspectival space. I paint a shallow space where the illusion of deep space and flat symbolic space coincide- there is no ‘original’ field , only translations, and re-interpretations. Rather than be told what the world should look like, the viewers are confronted with paint on canvas and invited to make their own interpretation.
I am interested in the meeting points of where one element such as a flat giant scorpion symbol resides next to an image of industrial smoke stacks (located outside my studio) or parts of Bruegel’s landscape; or how at the intersection of two elements a whole new configuration can arise. These transition points provide a platform for re-thinking community. I depict this space of cultural exchange, where one world view does not over dominate the other- instead each element relies on one another for continuum.

Her paintings invite the viewers to project their experiences into this fusion of real and imagined landscapes.
She uses her cross-cultural frame of reference to interact with her immediate environment and to create a symbolic language through which viewers are invited to share their experience of the world. Her motifs are at once familiar and foreign, intimate and remote, serious and whimsical. The suspension between these polarities creates a shared space between the artist and the audience through which the audience may participate in the imagined world of the artist.
Hagia Sophia is a clear example of her work as a fusion of different images and cultures. Here the viewer is presented with a bird’s-eye perspective of what at first appears to be a familiar scene: Istanbul and its most famous architectural landmark. However, on closer viewing, the image is not what it at first seems to be. Is this Istanbul or Boston? Is that the Bosphorus or the Charles River? Viewers discover embedded details of both worlds and find themselves at an imaginary intersection of east and west. Through the union of these two spaces, viewers are presented with the possibility of multiple narratives and encouraged to create their own platform to rethink identity, community, and place. (Professor Peter Galeno “Painting Exhibition” Newbury College, Brookline)