Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is pleased to present All The Colors I Am Inside, a series of photographs by Deb Achak, and her first solo exhibition with the New York gallery. The show is in conjunction with the artist’s recently released monograph, of the same name, published by Kehrer Verlag. In this work, Achak honors her mother’s words of wisdom to “trust your gut instinct,” through deeply personal, intuitive pieces. These thought-provoking compositions center nature, beauty, and family in a captivating meditation on the complexity of the interior self.
The exhibition title is a nod to a Shel Silverstein poem in which “all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.” The series is a manifestation of Achak’s own “spiritual curiosity” that she has created instinctively over the years, resulting in a body of work that explores different thematic directions than her previous projects. Over time, Achak knits together this intimate narrative of dreamy portraits and surreal landscapes that evoke the unseen elements of energy and intuition that shape our lives.
Achak is preoccupied by nature as a grounding yet transformative element. In Cherry Blossoms, Fallen, a raised flower bed is completely covered in cherry blossom flowers, dropped from an unseen tree. The shape of the ephemeral blossoms over a pine wood flower bed is vaguely grave-like, capturing a beautiful and contemplative moment of transition. Wild Carrot depicts a small white flowering plant standing among a shadowy forest, in a work that celebrates beauty and the darker mysteries of the inner self.
Even in portraiture, Achak’s subjects are swept up in nature, surrounded by floral prints or immersed among lush greenery. Achak centers people in her life that are known and loved, including family members and close friends. Their faces are often turned away from the viewer or obscured amid shadows, evoking faces seen in a dream or long ago, as if the mind is trying to place a memory. Through these intimate and introspective works, Achak honors the power of intuition, and invites viewers to reacquaint themselves with their own external and internal landscapes that are familiar yet hold an endless sea of possibilities.
Deb Achak is a visual artist and storyteller whose large-scale photographs explore the metaphysical and emotional link between the human and natural world. After stepping away from a 15-year career as a mental health social worker, Achak began her photography practice, employing a visual medium to continue her exploration of the interior lives of herself and others. Curious to examine the notion of our internal selves, she leans into the elasticity of photography by employing several genres within the medium. Achak’s practice includes swimming with her camera throughout the world, personal narratives created near her home, and painterly abstract florals inspired by baroque paintings. Each body of work is made with the singular ideal, to wrestle with what is under the surface in each of us.
