Phyllis Bramson
dal 14/4/2004 al 15/5/2004
Segnalato da
14/4/2004
Phyllis Bramson
Littlejohn Contemporary, New York
Seasonal Pleasures provided by the kindness of women. New work. Painting ultimately suggests a relationship to one's world and Phyllis Bramson's goal is to articulate this beautifully and curiously. She consciously pushes against banality, taking into consideration some psychic realism that hovers between being nonsensical and profoundly meaningful. At one point or another, she is infusing her collaged paintings with strategies of parody, arbitrariness, the ephemeral and some conjecture about love. Burlesque-like and erotically hypersensitive, meandering between physical and mental existence, her paintings take on the notion of somebody's desire to behold them.
"SEASONAL PLEASURES PROVIDED BY THE KINDNESS OF WOMEN"
NEW WORK
Painting ultimately suggests a relationship to one's world and Phyllis
Bramson's goal is to articulate this beautifully and curiously. She
consciously pushes against banality, taking into consideration some psychic
realism that hovers between being nonsensical and profoundly
meaningful. At one point or another, she is infusing her collaged
paintings with strategies of parody, arbitrariness, the ephemeral and some
conjecture about love. Burlesque-like and erotically hypersensitive,
meandering between physical and mental existence, her paintings take on the
notion of somebody's desire to behold them.
The idea of looking is a form of intoxication and absorption. The images
she uses are based on the co-presence of memory and fiction suggesting a
miniaturized fairy-like illusionary life that offers up all sorts of cosmic
possibilities. The narratives are as much about existential disturbances
(and slippage between reality and fantasy) as they are about "painterly
anxiety". Thus the activity of making a painting becomes mediations
between pleasure, trauma, and connections. Sometimes, the difficulty in
looking might actually be symbolic of a deeper malaise---a difficulty of
being. Ms. Bramson's paintings reflect a medium that is not only about the
need to see, but it is also the medium of "touch". Distilling and
submerging curdled matter such as the senses, emotional heat and quirks of
the soul into unsettling ruminations about eroticized love and cosmic disorder.
Finally, Bramson's paintings are projections about affectionate feelings in
a hostile world played out against operatic opulence, refined and dressed
to reflect the terrible melancholy of nostalgia and loss.
Phyllis Bramson received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, her MA in Painting at the University of Wisconsin, her BFA in
Drawing and Painting at the University of Illinois; she also attended Yale
University on a Yale/Norfolk Art Scholarship. Her work has been widely
exhibited throughout the US and is in numerous important museum
collections. Among the grants and fellowships she has been awarded are
from: The Rockefeller Foundation Residency/Grant; John Simon Guggenheim;
Marie Walsh Sharpe; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; Senior
Fulbright Scholar; Louis Comfort Tiffany. For further information and
visuals please contact Jacquie Littlejohn or Kim Toscano. Bramson's work
may also be viewed on the following
In the image: Acts of Theft, 2003.
LITTLEJOHN CONTEMPORARY
41 EAST 57 STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10022
t-212.980.2323 f-212.980.2346