"Getting Lost on Purpose,” a Solo Exhibition of New Prints
by Anne Sherwood Pundyk
The Gallery at Holy Trinity Church, Greenport, NY
Curated by Rainer Gross
March 8 - April 19, 2026
Artist's talk on Saturday, April 18th at 3:30 pm in the gallery with Anne Sherwood Pundyk, Rainer Gross and Franklin Hill Perrell.
“Getting Lost on Purpose,” at The Gallery at Holy Trinity Church, debuts new monoprints Anne created at the Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Austin, TX. Anne set out to translate her painting sensibility to printmaking during her month-long residency there in December. Curated by Rainer Gross, the exhibition included the prints alongside a selection of her recent paintings.
Anne observes, “Looking back on my residency, it’s clear that engaging with a new medium is more than a superficial technical exercise. It operates on a gut level. There are specialized components to master, however, to make something your own, ironically you have to let go. You have to step outside yourself while simultaneously channeling what is core to your being.”
Anne makes large, colorful, abstract paintings on unstretched canvas. She applies paint in a variety of ways. Some are similar to printmaking where she presses patterned textures and shapes onto the canvas. These effects are layered with organic forms made by staining the canvas with liquid paint. The underlying structure of her paintings is created by cropped panels of canvas sewn together in different configurations.They remain unstretched retaining their irregular borders, loose threads and disrupted surfaces.
“Chance plays a role in Anne’s painting,” Rainer recounts, “Her new prints embrace this sensibility and are just gorgeous.” Anne often begins a painting with a structure in mind and then dismantles it as she goes. Likewise, while printmaking requires precise preparation, one never knows exactly what the results will be.
Using monoprinting techniques Anne set her compositional parameters with stencils. As in her paintings, the overlapping circular elements and rectangular panels reflect her interest in portraying shifts of mood and emotion primarily through pure color. She employed varied ink effects through the use of solvent splatters, thread, and an occasional additional drypoint plate layer. Appreciating the importance of balancing both the white of the paper with the depth of darker mixed and layered hues, she learned through trial and error to recognize the moment when a print was resolved and took on a presence of its own.
Read Anne's essay about the printmaking residency, "Dear Reader, Get Out Your Map and Just Run."
Listen to Radio Interview: WLIW: Heart of the East End with Gianna Volpe, March 9, 2026
"Anne Sherwood Pundyk, Getting Lost on Purpose"
CURATOR STATEMENT
ANNE SHERWOOD PUNDYK - GETTING LOST ON PURPOSE
A Solo Exhibition of New Prints and Selected Paintings
I have had the privilege to visit Anne’s studio in Mattituck regularly over the last five years. Her dedication to her art practice, be it performances, painting or her art writings, always inspires me to keep thinking and working myself. Anne is a dedicated practitioner and essential part of the East End art scene and beyond.
For a long time, circles have been appearing in her paintings – at times broken or interrupted by numerous other layers of paint on unstretched canvases stitched together as hanging fabrics. Her rejection of the stretched canvas is a welcome innovation. It allows the works to flow to breathe in an open way.
Anne works and reworks her surfaces with layers of paint and collage additions evolving to a state of eventual acceptance. This practice is often referred to as process painting.
On a recent visit to Texas, Anne spent a month immersing herself into monoprints at the Flatbed Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Austin. There she utilized a method of overprinting layers of transparent and solid colors. The fun part about printing is that one really doesn’t know what exactly will happen after adding another layer. There is always that surprise.
So - GETTING LOST ON PURPOSE - the title for this exhibition here at Holy Trinity Church gallery, is appropriately chosen since most of the pieces shown here come from her experience in Texas.
We included a large painting of her Mattituck studio work, which highlights her textured approach.
The printing process, however, has the uncanny ability to fuse layers into a fascinating flatness where only the pigmented overlapping color tones create dimensions of depth and space – bringing some colors forward and throwing others to the back.
These prints, based on years of studio experimentation, are a rare culmination in the evolution of Anne’s work. They stand on their own. I congratulate her on this remarkable achievement. Anne, keep on GETTING LOST ON PURPOSE!
Rainer Gross
March 8, 2026