Sally Linder

“White Magnetism” may not immediately suggest Arctic polar bears, but they are the subjects of the Vermont artist’s solo exhibition at the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery in Burlington. Linder expresses her love and respect for the famously climate-change-threatened creatures, building on an artistic career dedicated to “a deep commitment to Earth and all living beings.” Her intimate, detailed depictions of the bears derive from a 2013 trip to Svalbard Islands aboard a National Geographic ship. “At the top of the world where for four months the sun never sets,” writes Linder, “four-legged ghosts curiously approach across the frozen landscape … Opening my sketchbook and aligning my penciled marks with the curvature of Great White Bears’ presence, an integration in this home of incomprehensible wild enormity takes form.”