ANNE WEHRLEY BJÖRK / This is now

Anne Wehrley Björk (b. 1948, New Mexico) lives and works between Lexington, KY and Charleston, SC, and originally hails from New Mexico, a landscape that has deeply shaped her work. Chaco Canyon, near where she grew up in northwest New Mexico, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the ancestral home of the prehistoric Anasazi peoples. Designated a “Dark Sky Park,” the site is known for its absence of light pollution and its singular atmospheric presence. Björk’s current body of work investigates this formative landscape and its distinctive light quality, drawing from pathways, sandstone walls, and petroglyphs etched into her memory.

Though her work leans toward abstraction, Björk describes a subtle narrative that unfolds within each painting. Boulders appear poised to fall, moons hover, turbulent skies add dynamism, and Impressionist juxtapositions of warm and cool color create moments of softness, while crepuscular light overtakes form. Beginning her career in the 1970s, Björk’s work has gained broader recognition later in life, a trajectory shared by many women painters of her generation. During her graduate studies at the University of New Mexico, she trained with Agnes Martin, Joan Brown, Susan Rothenberg, and Deborah Butterfield. Her commitment to Chaco Canyon remains a constant within a practice grounded in sustained investigations of light, color, and form.