Robert Sagerman
dal 4/4/2007 al 25/5/2007
Segnalato da
4/4/2007
Robert Sagerman
Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco
Sagerman creates color fields that activate the eye. He builds up a lush surface through thousands of daubs of oil paint applied in many layers. These works make for a optical experience with the contrast of the vibrant color palette and the deep shadows created by the surface texture.
Dematerializations / interstices / permutations
New York artist Robert Sagerman opens an exhibition, dematerializations /
interstices / permutations, at Brian Gross Fine Art on Thursday, April 5, with a
reception for the artist from 5:30-7:30 pm.
In his work, Robert Sagerman creates rich, transcendent color fields that activate
the eye. He builds up a lush surface through thousands of daubs of oil paint applied
in many layers. These emphatically material works take on a sculptural quality and
make for a unique optical experience with the contrast of the vibrant color palette
and the deep shadows created by the surface texture.
Sagerman likens the activity of making these works to meditation. For the artist,
the repetitive process of methodically building up the painting surface over time,
and counting every stroke, becomes a transformative discipline. Additionally, the
intense experience of color perception that occurs when viewing the finished
painting transcends the work as an object. Sagerman is intrigued by this seeming
contradiction, as the physicality of the work is nearly impossible to overlook.
The painting titles, such as 10,191, reflect the exact number of marks the artist
makes to create each piece. He sees the counting of each stroke for each color as
the purest form of the painting activity in which he engages, in that the numbers
for him suggest the immaterial essence of the work. As Sagerman has said, "The
extent to which such an immaterial reality is objectively real, as against its
status as a subjective projection, is one over which I puzzle." Influenced by his
studies in medieval Jewish mysticism, he sees the product of his activity as
“simultaneously both a self-projection and a conduit."
Born in Bayside, New York in 1966, Robert Sagerman received his MFA in Painting and
MA in Art History from the Pratt Institute in 1998, his MA in Religious Studies in
2000 from New York University and is currently working towards his PhD in Jewish
Mysticism, Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Sagerman has
participated in numerous exhibitions in New York, Atlanta and Chicago. The San
Francisco exhibition continues through May 26, 2007 and is his second at Brian Gross
Fine Art.
Reception: Thursday, April 5, 5:30-7:30 pm
Brian Gross Fine Art
49 Geary Street, 5th Floor - San Francisco