Bender Gallery is excited to present Eden Revisited, a solo exhibition of lush, botanical paintings by popular artist Laine Bachman featuring real and imaginary creatures and goddess-like women with a deep connection to the natural world. Inspired by myths, folklore, and nature, Bachman infuses the colorful worlds she creates with verdant foliage, archetypal imagery, underlying themes, exotic fauna, and meticulous detail. The exhibition runs from Saturday, September 30, and runs through October 30 during the gallery’s regular business hours. There will be a public opening reception for Bachman on Saturday, September 30, from 5 to 8 PM.

The exhibition features thirty plus gorgeous intricately detailed works celebrating feminine mystery, women’s connection to the earth, and the mysterious wonder of nature’s observable reality. Bachman’s style is a unique fusion of two contemporary styles: Pop Surreal art (a contemporary movement spawned out of the cynical Lowbrow underground movement formed in LA in the 1970s) with softer themes and more beautiful images, and a recognizable Magical Realism style - depicting a reality which focuses less on social critique and more of an exploration of the strangeness of existence and fantasy. Bachman is inspired by French artist Henri Rosseau, known for his large-scale jungle scene paintings, Mexican surrealist Frida Kahlo, and American master of realism, Andrew Wyeth.

Though she paints in a flat realistic style, Bachman’s work has elements of Surrealism throughout. Her subjects are often in incongruous settings, features are distorted, hybrid fantastical creatures abound, yet the overall effect is beauty and harmony. In The Last Lagoon, Bachman paints a wondrous scene teeming with life above and below the water’s surface, under a starry sky of azure and violet. In the painting, Eve, we see a doe-eyed Eve with a brilliant halo and exquisite tattooing amidst green foliage, contemplating the bite of the fateful apple. Bachman’s precise layering of brushwork yields a smooth surface that highlights fine lines and details.

Bachman studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design and earned a BFA in Painting in 1997. Throughout the years Laine has had work included in several juried exhibitions and group shows at numerous galleries as well as in the Southern Ohio Museum of Art. In April 2019, Bachman’s work was featured as part of ArtConnect, a collateral event concurrent with the 13th Havana Biennial exhibition, in Matanzas, Cuba. Laine was also a fortunate attendee at the event in Havana. The Canton Museum of Art will be hosting a solo exhibit for her during the summer of 2024.

'Eden Revisited' at Bender Gallery