MEGAN GABRIELLE HARRIS

Megan Gabrielle Harris’s paintings typically feature women of color depicted as powerful, regal, and divine, often set against rich and vibrant backdrops. In All Things Held Between, Harris expands her focus slightly, allowing the landscape to take a more central role. Many of these scenes are inhabited by the same solitary women who appear throughout her work, depicted at moments of leisure and reflection.

Built up from many thinly applied layers, she bases her compositions on memories of landscapes from her life growing up in Northern California and scenery recalled from travels to alluring places such as South Africa, Hawaii, and Italy. The women, who are dominant subjects of several works, are inspired by an amalgamation of women from her family, sometimes based on personal photographs, or wearing clothes that belonged to her grandmother or mother, adding to the paintings’ sense of reflection and timelessness.

The largest painting in the exhibition features a distant view of a lone tree at the edge of the ocean, framed by gently sloping hills. Titled Shangri-La, it was made during Harris’s three-month residency at the New York-based Mack Art Foundation. This painting marks the first time Harris has worked at such a panoramic, mural-like scale, requiring a more physical approach in which the entire body becomes engaged in the act of painting. Extending far beyond the intimate dimensions of her earlier works, Shangri-La creates an enveloping viewing experience, distilling the visible world into a scene of stillness. The solitary tree on the horizon serves as a subtle focal point, echoing the women in other works, while reinforcing Harris’s theme of introspection.

The same sense of ease and comfort extends to Harris’s figures, rendered in simplified, gestural brushwork and luminous color. Whether gazing into the distance or resting with their eyes closed, they appear deeply surrendered to their surroundings. This imagined world is almost Edenic, as women recline in tender meadows, wander through lush valleys, and inhabit landscapes defined by tranquil sense of regeneration.

Megan Gabrielle Harris (b. 1990, Sacramento, CA) received a B.A. in Art History from California State University, Sacramento. She has exhibited work with De Buck Gallery, New York, NY; PARISTEXASLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Nolan House in Governor’s Island, NY; Out of Africa Gallery (OOA), Sitges, Spain; SHOWstudio Gallery, London, UK; Bonhams, Paris, FR; RBM Latitudes, Johannesburg, ZA; Christie’s, London, UK; and Unit 1 Gallery / Workshop, London, UK. In 2025 Harris completed artist residencies with the Mack Art Foundation in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY and Villa Lena in Turin, IT. Harris divides her time between Brooklyn, NY and Sacramento, CA.