Alumni Voices: Rachel Bohlander ’91
My journey as an artist wasn’t a direct line. It is a second career, one that began roughly 15 years ago. It started with taking classes at Washington Studio School in Washington, D.C., where I’m now faculty, and later took me to New York City where I lived and worked for three years. During my time there, I earned an MFA from the New York Studio School in Greenwich Village where I studied painting and sculpture. I credit Maria Trapani, my amazing and patient art teacher at Greenhills, with instilling in me the strong foundation on which I have built my art practice. It continues to serve me well.
My work is rooted in abstraction as a mode of perception and presence rather than a stylistic choice. Each piece begins in stillness and observation. I sit with the surface and absorb the rhythms of the day—fragments of conversation, news, weather, the cadence of my D.C. neighborhood. The studio remains open to sound and atmosphere, even in rain or cold (I do have a space heater!). These elements become part of the process, guiding each mark. There is no fixed narrative in my work, but a continuity of dialogue—between gesture and space, presence and absence, interior and exterior.
I approach the picture plane as a site for spatial exploration—not through illusion, but through the materiality of mark—to create a sense of space that is felt rather than depicted and where the boundaries of the canvas do not contain the marks but extend them. I am not interested in the traditional linear perspective. Instead I work toward a “spherical” spatial dynamic which encompasses the spaces of both viewer and artist.
My work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in D.C. and the surrounding region, as well as New York, Miami and Seattle. I’ve completed murals in Denver, CO, and Apex, NC, and have pieces in public and private collections in the U.S. and Canada. Most recently, I had a successful solo exhibition at the Arts Club of Washington in D.C. I am excited to see where my art journey leads me over the next 15 years.
Originally published in the 2024-2025 Forum Magazine
