Constellation, 2023Oil on paper / panel
12 × 9 in.; 13 × 10 in. framed
In these works each titled Constellation, Neusser presents three variations on a night sky stretched above pale, rocky terrain, each composition shifting in its balance of earth and cosmos. Echoing Romantic painters who sought the sublime in both terrestrial and celestial realms, these works also recall the 19th century’s expanding astronomical knowledge and speculation about life beyond Earth. The precise starscapes invite slow looking, bridging the painter’s hand with the timeless human impulse to map, imagine, and inhabit the infinite.