Heist Gallery is pleased to present Andrea Tese’s debut solo exhibition Boats Against the Current. The show is comprised of selected images from the artist's series entitled After, a project that depicts the aftermath of experience. Rather than capturing the experience itself, Tese seizes the lingering consequences and subsequently creates a narrative for even the most prosaic of instances. In this way she is able to juxtapose scenes of levity and gravity, giving them both the authority of an audience.

Constantly exploring mortality and nature's fleeting yet inexorable persistence, Tese searches for the meaning that is revealed as elements unravel. She explains, “I am interested in impermanence and mortality. The impression that an event or being has on this earth is often fleeting. The experience itself can have existed for just a second or less, and the ruins of it usually remain only a little longer.”

The title of the show refers to a line written by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." It speaks about the futile determination of humanity - a sentiment that is deeply ingrained in Tese’s work.

About Andrea Tese: Andrea Tese was born and raised in New York City, where she currently resides. After obtaining a BA from Georgetown University, she received her MFA from The School of Visual Arts in 2007. Tese’s photography has appeared in group exhibitions at Conner Contemporary Art and the Georgetown University Art Gallery in Washington, DC and the SVA Galleries in New York City. Tese’s work is owned by the Sandor Photography Collection and has appeared in industry publications such as disTRIBUTE (the web gallery created by American Photography) and the Visual Arts Journal. For additional information visit www.andreatese.com.