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The lead image from Phoebe Washer’s solo show at POVevolving Gallery features a man with a tiny bow and arrow, hovering in a cloud below the delicately scrawled words “How well do you remember?” It’s eerie, sentimental and wry all at once.
The San Francisco artist's work is full of illustrative figures burdened with expression, rendered in dusty hues on wood. The pieces are arresting not only for their maturity and wisdom, but also for the narrative each one provokes. At only 20 years old, the self-taught and prolific Washer created a gallery’s worth of work, and this show was at the top of our to-do list at the first glance of her gorgeous limited-edition prints. But skimming the gallery’s release, Washer’s art took on a haunting sadness: She suffered a fatal fall while hiking on the bluffs in Northern California in April, and this show represents a mournful retrospective of her work. Her family will donate proceeds from print sales to the newly formed Phoebe Washer Arts Foundation, and we suggest taking a look at what one young artist left behind as her legacy: truly beautiful imagery well worth remembering.
