ANNE BUCKWALTER

In _Lover’s Kno_t, Buckwalter shifts the lens from a wider view of rooms in a fictional house to a deliberate zooming-in, drawing viewers deep into each interior. Every object, texture, and spatial arrangement is rendered with meticulous care, while the warmth and tactility of Pennsylvania Dutch folk art traditions flow through her distinctive narrative approach. Each scene invites sustained looking, revealing stories that unfold detail by detail.

For this exhibition, Buckwalter also introduces a new body of work: geometric gouaches on paper. These quilt studies feel distinct yet connected to the paintings, expanding the exploration of hidden erotic imagery within visually charged patterns. Each work on paper depicts a colourful quilt, offering another conceptual link to the show’s title.

Buckwalter demonstrates her ability to embed layered narratives in the smallest of objects – for instance, intricate designs on dishware reveal sexual imagery camouflaged into rustic florals. In the eponymous painting Lover’s Knot (2025), a textile artwork within the painted room recalls Alighiero Boetti, while a digital tablet subtly depicts a couple reminiscent of Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss. These playful homages speak to Buckwalter’s deep and nuanced understanding of art history, seamlessly integrating canonical references into her own visual language. Each work operates as a folkloric tableau, where the characters, setting, time, and action are woven together, forming relationships both within the individual scenes and across the exhibition as a whole.

Even when the works contain contemporary elements, they transport viewers to another time—inviting them to spy on intimate moments. They require a physical closeness of looking that makes the experience feel personal and unguarded.

Sometimes the narratives are merely suggested—like a cake plate with fresh crumbs implying the dessert was just served—and other times they are openly explicit, as in Dog Days (2025), where figures in a pornographic book wear collars while a pet dog curls up on the carpet. In Living Room with Antique Chairs and Anaïs Nin Rug (2025), Buckwalter incorporates a phrase by feminist writer Anaïs Nin into a woven tapestry, drawing the viewer into the scene—playfully complicit, even submissive—blurring the line between visual and literary seduction. Buckwalter’s paintings are full of cheeky symbols, such as candelabras shaped like human figures, pearl necklaces forming the infinity symbol, and fruits serving as innuendos of the female body.

Buckwalter celebrates sexuality across all genders and renders explicit scenes within domestic settings that are anything but shy. These figures free themselves in the act of love, escaping stereotypes and social constraints. In Fireflies (2025), we get a romantic glimpse of a couple making love beneath the moon and stars. She invites us into every room in the house, shifting between tenderness and intensity, and crafting a sexual language that is both direct and veiled.

In Lover’s Knot, Buckwalter moves with exhilarating freedom between the domestic and the adventurous, the antique and the modern—inviting us to linger, look closer, and discover subversive narratives in the most unexpected corners.