PROJECT SPACE

Memorial Polyptych

by Hannah Wesen

GALLERY HOURS WED-SUN 12n-6p

details from Memorial Polyptych

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Hannah Verena Wesen (née Finlator) received a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington DC in 2000 under studio advisors Professor Emeritus William A Newman and Professor Emerita Leslie Exton. In 2002 she earned a Masters in studio arts from Newcastle upon Tyne University in Newcastle, England with merit in painting. She later apprenticed fine art restoration and conservation at the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Cologne and audited fine art conservation coursework at Cologne University of Cultural Sciences from 2010 - 2012.

As a student, Wesen developed her studio process with art history research making live studies in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery, Washington National Gallery, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. This work gave rise to Wesen's principal source of inspiration: early painting on wood panel and women artists of late medieval to the Northern European Renaissance (Dürerzeit). Her thesis work, Artist and Sources of Inspiration, Newcastle University 2002, compared works by anonymous masters and early women painters (Hemessen, Anguissola, L. Fontana). Her writing cited correlating bases for analyses: ambiguity of genre and timeline, autonomy of viewer experience, and the expressive potency of art lacking rigid categorizations. These terms have since been fundamental to Wesen’s studio work investigating connections to art of the past with her approach to intimate portraiture and personal relationships.

In 2019 Wesen moved with her family to her native Raleigh, North Carolina, where she now lives and works. Current projects include a multi-panel “polyptych” series for public view at REVOLVE in Asheville, works based on German art in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Lochner, Cranach), exhibition TBD., and private portrait commissions.

ABOUT THE WORK

Memorial Polyptych is an integrated multi-panel artwork examining grief through narrative portraiture. Following the 2025 death of her mother, Wesen carried out a series of paintings on wood panels visualizing aspects of her mother’s enduring presence carried out using classical methods of oil painting and inspired by church altarpieces of the late gothic era. The series combines three lower and three upper panels with a closed (verso) seventh and eighth. 

Like narrative compositions of religious polyptychs, Memorial Polyptych depicts shifts in life stages including a death portrait predella (2’x5’), two flanking portrait niches (2’x4’), and an upper triptych with three varying landscapes (4’x4’ closed/ 4’x8’ open). The closed format shows to double-portraits “Die Älteren” (the ancestors) in monochrome.

Wesen’s merging of Dürerzeit figuration with personal biography is visible in the upper left cathedral scene. Taking inspiration from Mattias Grünewald’s Isenheim “Engelchor” and Nativity, Wesen paints an imaginary cello/viola concert within the Hessian gothic cathedral of Wetzlar, depicting music as the vehicle of transiting the sacred and natural worlds. The opposite panel sets out a self-portrait in profile between two generations, connected via triangular format. The children in colorful song, meteorological phenomena, and summery landscape suggest a thematic counterpoint to the emotional predella.

In the upper central panel, the scene shows Wesen’s mother waving to the smithy of her childhood. 

+++EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT+++

REVOLVE & Tracey Morgan Gallery are excited to announce our collaborative residency at the Community Space located at 821 Riverside Dr, #179, in Asheville, beginning in March, and through December 2026. From TMG’s press release:

“While our location will change, the spirit of TMG will remain. We will continue staging curated solo exhibitions by local, regional and national artists as well as thematic group shows and artist focused events. Since opening TMG in January of 2017, we have presented a robust program of over 70 solo and thematic group exhibitions in a range of media by emerging and established artists from all over the US.”

REVOLVE will continue to program the Project Space. We will also host and facilitate events and community needs in both spaces throughout the TMG residency.

Keep your eyes and ears open for updates on programming and collaborative events!

SUPPORT US HERE!

Revolve is a contemporary art space that functions as part gallery, part studio, part performance and gathering space. We host exhibitions, events, and happenings that push the boundaries between artist and audience. Our intention is focused on representing creative energies on a foundation of inclusion, accessibility and experimentation. We are volunteer-run by artists who believe in the power of community. We are committed to being a space that is sustainable for art while remaining accessible for all.

Our mission is to support the varied creative folks of Western North Carolina, as well as regions beyond, to represent many different communities and forms of expression. In doing so, we hope to build a community with connections to an intellectual landscape that reaches beyond our mountain borders.

Accessibility is important. Revolve is a place to grow together as a community of makers. We are happy to be able to provide time + space for your creative and communal experience, but we are committed to not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment including but not limited to: homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, ageism, xenophobia, ableism. Revolve strives to create a safer space for marginalized communities and voices, we keep ourselves safe.

ADA-friendly: We rent from RAMP Studios and are not permitted to make the necessary changes to our space to be completely ADA-compliant. There are no automatic doors for building or bathroom access, and one portion of our gallery is only accessible by a small flight of stairs. You can experience most of our space safely with more than 3 feet of clearance for passthroughs, exhibitions permitting. If you have additional concerns, please reach out for additional information.

JULY