David Onri Anderson

Mysteries of the Sun

May 10th - June 21st

“The Sun is my favorite painter and the best artist: it illuminates our cosmic neighborhood and brings life to our beloved Earth.”

Citing medieval manuscripts, transcendental jazz, Jewish mysticism, and the Tennessee landscape; David Onri Anderson’s solo exhibition Mysteries of the Sun at Pond Gallery weaves personal narrative with invented mythology around the Sun and its devotees: the moon, the Earth, its inhabitants, and the divine beings beyond. 

Anderson’s improvisational practice considers the fate of objects. On daily, meditative walks through his Nashville neighborhood, he gathers found materials that make their way into his paintings. Anything from an electric stove element to discarded chicken bones contains the potential to reveal clues to life’s mysteries.

In Anderson’s world, existential anxiety is subdued by embracing wonder and play. Cosmic smiles and wobbly lines translate ideas of consciousness, transcendence, and faith. Harmony is struck between celestial bodies and the self. The universe becomes tangible to anyone squinting at the sun, pointing to an animal-shaped cloud passing by.

Mysteries of the Sun is David Onri Anderson’s second solo show in Arkansas and is the inaugural exhibition of Pond Gallery, a new exhibition space located on the downtown Fayetteville square. The exhibition will run from May 10th to June 21st, with a reception on May 10th from 5:30 - 8 pm.

David Onri Anderson (b. 1993, TN) is a painter, musician, and curator of French/Algerian ancestry who currently lives and works in Nashville, TN. Anderson received his BFA from Watkins College of Art in 2016 and has had solo exhibitions at Patrick Painter Gallery (LA), Blaa Galleri (Copenhagen), Harpy Gallery (NJ) and David Lusk Gallery (Nashville). His work has been reviewed, exhibited, and collected nationally and internationally, and is in the permanent collections of Soho House in LA and Nashville, the Joseph Hotel, and the Metro Arts Library in TN. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Artnet, BURNAWAY, DailyLazy, and more. In 2020 he published a book of drawings through the Zurich-based publishing company, Nieves. Anderson is also the founder and curator of the artist-run space, Electric Shed, in Nashville, TN.