Wo Schiffman, Launiupoko, 2026
Wo Schiffman
Light as Air
September 8 – September 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Sept. 10, 6 – 8 PM
Book Signing: Sept. 17, 6 – 8 PM
Artist Talk: Sept. 24, 6 – 8 PM
Atlantic Gallery is pleased to present Light as Air, a solo exhibition by Wo Schiffman September 8 – 26
During the month of September, Atlantic Gallery presents an exhibition of recent paintings and photographs by Wo Schiffman offering unique images of atmospheric light. Using a bird’s eye perspective, Schiffman takes us on a journey of abstract images based on her experiences in small aircraft over land and sea around the Pacific Rim. Using a diverse accumulation of layered color and texture Schiffman challenges our preconceived notions of clouds and sight navigation, exploring minute color shifts amidst glimpses of distant land and seascapes. Without the grounding of familiar landscapes, the exhibition offers an experience of “being lost in the clouds” among subtle shifts in color.
At a time when conflict and change saturate our daily existence, this work poses philosophical questions about losing one’s way on a defined journey. The entire exhibition was painted en plein air on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains, surrounded by mist, strong trade winds, and often dense cloud formations. Working outside for over nine to ten hours on many days over the past twelve months, during changing weather produced enigmatic shifts in color and texture on the canvas. The process contributed heavily to the unique layering of pigment, wax, and traditional polymer solutions as they dispersed erratically across the canvas in wind driven conditions.
This new body of work continues Schiffman’s visual exploration of time and space. Extending her land and seascape imagery from past collections into the atmospheric realm allows time to shift along familiar half-hidden landscape lines peeking through the cloud masses in this new body of work. In her past solo show at the Atlantic Gallery, Encaustic Entanglements (2019), she explored the correlations between galaxies and micro-biomes using hot wax (encaustic) painting. In this new exhibition, we are invited to surrender our sense of time and space becoming lost in the clouds – a welcome respite from the chaos of the media and current events.
About the artist:
Born in the US to a Dutch/American family, Wo Schiffman grew up in both the US and the Netherlands. She spent many years in Scandinavia studying art and subsequently completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in Philosophy at John Carroll University and the University of Colorado. Continuing her studies in the US at the Artists League of NY, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and through residencies and mentorships, she focused on developing a practice combining unusual materials such as hot and cold wax, botanicals, and handmade ground mineral pigments suspended in oils and polymers and creating mark-making tools and brushes from discarded objects and plant fibers. Her work has been on exhibit in Europe, Australia, Canada, the US, and Asia. In 2024 she was invited by the European Cultural Commission to participate in their exhibition in Venice during the Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include: Love Letters to the Earth (Lex Billes Doux),The San Francisco Women Artist’s Gallery, Traces, The Seacoast Artists Gallery (Exeter, NH), Landlines, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts (Mill Valley, CA) and participation in various Museum exhibitions including the NY Hall of Science, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, and the National Encaustic Museum (New Mexico). Wo Schiffman currently resides in Hawaii with her husband, Barry and their dachshund, Tova.