Mia Risberg

My paintings depict places and people that appear to hold secrets. Informed by personal memories, photographs, and imagination, I render fleeting moments, contemplative landscapes, and partially revealed or enigmatic figures. They are seen but also not fully revealed. Reluctant to divulge themselves they occupy a space that we as viewers observe, enter or intrude upon.

Started during the pandemic this series of drawings explores what I capture what I perceive as moments of stillness in my life. Some drawings are sparsely populated. Others show people cropped or in the shape of a shadow. Others yet are devoid of figures and depict solitary streets or landscapes.

These twenty-four pieces are part of a call and response series organized through Shoebox PR in the early stages of COVID-19 in 2020 and its lockdowns. We are two artists located in different parts of the country working in different mediums. Jessica Chappe is a photographer, based in Los Angeles, CA, and Mia Risberg is a painter, based in Ann Arbor, MI. We met through this project and then continued the process throughout quarantine, creating a series of 12 works each, accompanied by poetry. We call this series “Inside World”. The exhibit is now online.

Jessica: The fast turnaround rate of this project helped me to not overthink and to work with what was in front of me. It helped me to unearth creativity from my own life, turning the camera inward and pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone. My responses play with the concept of where I am versus where I want to be, physically and metaphorically in the time of quarantine.

Mia: When the quarantine began, it was difficult for me to focus on my studio work so I welcomed the diversion of a new project. I too, found the quick turnaround (24 hours) helpful because it encouraged spontaneity and an intuitive approach to painting. At first my paintings seemed to be responses to colors or patterns in Jessica’s photographs. Quickly though, they evolved to something that parallels what we are going through now. The painted figures reflect the distancing that we are experiencing during the COVID-19 quarantine period. Although the figures appear introspective and isolated they also seem to merge with the natural world. Through their imagination they expand away from their inside world and strive for connection with others and also with nature, which is something that is always constant.

(All Paintings are 6 x 7.5” / 15 x 19 cm, plus a thin white border. Acrylic on primed paper)

4/16/2020-5/31/2020

These small works began as a desire to paint details of various figures while thinking about my composition and color choices. Working on these I realized that a partial figure hints at what is outside the frame and creates an interesting narrative, one that is ambiguous and engages the person who is looking at them. As a group the figures engage in a dialogue with each other as well as with the viewer.

I started 813 Microgallery in the Fall of 2022, as a place to share art with my community and to showcase, on a small scale, the work of diverse artists.

The space is petite (the size of a large box), informal, accessible to visitors, as well as passersby, and viewed by art lovers as well as people who may otherwise not regularly go to galleries.

Each month the gallery exhibits a different artist to display their small works or create a site specific installation in the space.

Submission information can be found on Instagram @813microgallery.

To hear more about the gallery, you can listen to the featured Create! podcast interview here.