Four Artists: A Closer Look
December 4–21, 2024
Clockwise, works by: Pernel Berkeley, Pesya Altman, Jacob Crook, Ellen Burgin
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 5, 6–8 pm
FIRST STREET GALLERY is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Pesya Altman, Pernel Berkeley and Ellen Burgin and mezzotint engravings by printmaker Jacob Crook, curated by artist April Gornik.
The exhibition celebrates the art of these four artists, all of whom were in the Gallery’s November 2024 National Juried Exhibition, juried by Gornik. Given an unexpected exhibition opportunity the following month, the Gallery invited April Gornik to curate a more narrowly focused exhibition, a “closer look” at the work of four artists of her choosing from the previous show.
In this exhibition, each artist has a representative body of work in their primary media: strong works that have a distinct character, use of rich color, or the communion of light and dark. As different as their work is from each other’s, they share a common thirst for discovery, and a deep engagement with their materials and the themes that excite them.
Asked about their sources of inspiration, the process that animates their art-making practice, or other insights into their work, here is a closer look at their creative intentions:
Pesya Altman – Since the pandemic’s period of isolation, “portraits, figures and scenes have become a central focus” of the artist’s work. “Inspired by the work of artists like Alice Neel, Philip Guston and Frank Auerbach”, Altman “explores the human condition, to capture emotions, conflicts and everyday situations”, as she “explores her own voice” within this age-old and still evolving genre. She “draws and paints portraits from a variety of sources, including “live models, old photographs, and images captured on the streets of New York City or while watching television”. Altman works in pencil, ink, pastels, oils and acrylics. All of the works in this exhibition are oils.
Pernel Berkeley – “Although forms I choose evolve, color is fundamental to all my work. Inspiration comes from a variety of non-Western art forms blended with traditional Western artistic concerns.” The paintings, acrylics on wood panels, have “sculptural aspects. The sculptural quality sets up the interplay of form and pattern with color, which I hope constitutes a unique visual language.”
Ellen Burgin – “Doubt and indecision” are at the core of Burgin’s painting process. “There is a friction that is always present where I may begin with a theme or an idea but it is through the process of questioning and doubting (wiping away marks, adding marks, turning the painting upside down while I work, completely painting over compositions that once seemed finished) that drives the work towards its final resolution. The final image is always a blend of discovery and intention. The images created indirectly reference body forms or forms in nature.”
Jacob Crook – Working in the reductive process of mezzotint engraving, Crook describes his creative intention: “The quality of light cast into a space has the potential to bring poetry to the prosaic, magic to the mundane, and beauty to the banal. The light spilling through these nocturnal landscapes and interiors in the exhibition serves…to transform the scenes into empty stage sets…suggesting the possibility of untold narratives that are just out of reach. My intent is not to tell a story directly, but to set the stage in such a way that viewers are compelled to consider the moments before and after the one presented based on their own associations with the imagery.”
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11am – 6pm
