Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects present Artifacts, a solo exhibition of paintings by E.M. Saniga. This exhibition has two components. The first is a collection of new works by the artist, depicting Quaker artifacts and structures from the area surrounding Saniga’s home in rural Lancaster County Pennsylvania. The second, on view at PR0JECTOR, our pop-up location on Eldridge Street, is a survey of the artist’s earlier paintings, with many works borrowed from private collections.

Saniga’s still lifes depict ceramic and metal fragments excavated from the site of a burnt down 18th century Quaker frame house discovered on the property of neighbor and amateur archeologist Peter Deen. Other objects and materials described in these works derive from museum collections, memory and imagination. The landscapes included in the exhibition, depict original Quaker houses in and around Lancaster County, such as the 1770 Quaker home Saniga lives in with his family.

On view in the rear of the gallery, is a table from Saniga’s studio, displaying a number of these artifacts, providing a glimpse into Saniga’s studio practice. In addition to being a painter, Saniga is a Distinguished Professor of Information Technology at the University of Delaware, For him science and art share a unique bond as exploratory processes without forgone conclusions. He observes, “There are a few similarities between what I do in painting and in mathematical model building, which is the primary concern of my research. Both are abstractions of reality, and both can yield unexpected outcomes, which is part of their magic. Both involve invention.”

Saniga paints from observation and memory, creating a model of reality at once naturalistic and mysterious, analytical and poetic. His motifs are traditional yet paradoxically unfamiliar. His paintings carry a sensitivity to the beauty of death and decay.

Saniga studied with Seymour Remenick at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and privately under Bruce Kurland. He endows a residency program called the Charles and Lois Carlson Landscape Painting Prize awarded to a Pennsylvania Academy student. This is Saniga’s third exhibition at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects. His work was exhibited at The Lancaster Museum of Art in 2012.