Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of EDGE OF SUNSHINE, a solo exhibition by Julia Berkman.
For her first exhibition at the gallery, Berkman presents a selection of small to mid-size acrylic and oil paintings on canvas.
The paintings in the exhibition combine the formal tropes of minimalist abstraction with more overt painterly signifiers to claim a space between painting as a vehicle of presence and painting as a tool of visibility.
The general material mechanics of painting are visible as emphatic reminders of the body and of the medium's now-gone reflexive capacity. The marks assert the characteristics and limitations of the brush in imperfect contours and uneven applications of paint, retaining evidence of paint's once-liquid status. This linking of visibility to bodily trace is at odds with commercial notions of visibility as branding and depicted content.
(text source: Fredric Snitzer Gallery)
Julia Berkman, Edge of Sunshine, installation view, 2012; Courtesy of the artist and Fredric Snitzer Gallery.
More about Julia Berkman (b. 1976, Boston, Massachusetts)
I live in Watertown and work out of my studio in Somerville, Massachusetts. For years I painted representationally, exploring my love of color and using expressive brushstrokes to depict the world around me. In 2003, my paintings took a decisive turn towards abstraction. I had set up an elaborate still life in my studio using Chinese lanterns, suspended pieces of fabric, colored lampshades and objects. The still life was in front of a large window, and the effect was an overflowing miasma of color and light. From this still life I created numerous small and large paintings. The still life was only a starting point; the objects transformed themselves into glowing silhouettes of color, buoyant concentrations of energy.
The paintings I am making now are visual reflections of my internal emotional world. Although I am not using a still life as a source, my visual vocabulary of color, touch and line is inextricably linked to everything that I have seen, thought and experienced. Abstraction allows me to explore the complex and layered elements of my experience. I am interested in what cannot be expressed in words, the fuzzy terrain between foreground and background, presence and absence, volume and void.
Education: MFA, Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, New Brunswick, NJ, 2007. Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio Art, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 2005. BA, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, 1999.
(text source: Fredric Snitzer Gallery)
For further information...(ArtSlant Profile) (Artist's Website) (Gallery)
(Image on top: Julia Berkman, Endpoint, 2012 , Acrylic and oil on canvas , 12 x 12 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Fredric Snitzer Gallery.)
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