![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/73a9f4fd3a6166ab0af0ea11d50f3cf5341a529aec97761b66241d8326d35724/VanderArk_Madi_main.jpg)
Painting
Madison Vander Ark
My paintings and
installations attend to my physical understanding of the world and investigate
the bleak, austere sites I encounter every day, while inviting the viewer to
imagine the possibilities that lie within.
I am about to go deep-sea diving. They have erected a vast tank of water on land next to the Mediterranean Sea. I strap oxygen to my back and descend into this tank. I go all the way to the bottom. Here, there is a cluster of blue lights shining on the entrance to a tunnel. I enter the tunnel. The tunnel will lead into the Mediterranean. I swim and swim. At the far end of the tunnel, I see more lights, white ones. When I have passed through the lights, I come out of the tunnel, suddenly, into the open sea, which drops away beneath me a full kilometer or more. There are fish all around and above me, and reefs on all sides. I think I am flying, over the deep. I forget, for now, that I must be careful not to get lost, but must find my way back to the mouth of the tunnel. —Lydia Davis (edited
I am about to go deep-sea diving. They have erected a vast tank of water on land next to the Mediterranean Sea. I strap oxygen to my back and descend into this tank. I go all the way to the bottom. Here, there is a cluster of blue lights shining on the entrance to a tunnel. I enter the tunnel. The tunnel will lead into the Mediterranean. I swim and swim. At the far end of the tunnel, I see more lights, white ones. When I have passed through the lights, I come out of the tunnel, suddenly, into the open sea, which drops away beneath me a full kilometer or more. There are fish all around and above me, and reefs on all sides. I think I am flying, over the deep. I forget, for now, that I must be careful not to get lost, but must find my way back to the mouth of the tunnel. —Lydia Davis (edited
![Candy-cane Façade, 2019, oil on panel, 72 x 24”.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/094f9bf4cc19f44befea29dbb931ece3ae8a3d573f1875adb26fd9043d3f0102/VanderArk_Madi_CatalogImage1.jpg.jpg)
![Candy-cane Façade (detail), 2019, oil on panel, 72 x 24”.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/136c2fb8160e740e5f9a3260baa3cd5d8e66bb39f528bd354c41d540b5d50f22/VanderArk_Madi_CatalogImage2.jpg)
![Veiled Genie, 2019, oil on panel, 82 x 104”.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d649ccec156d7a3e5ff01eb6b6710d0e33f4d4db76689e3d76e90c8188978b19/VanderArk_Madi_CatalogImage3.jpg)