In Stillness This Fiction Is Real, Megan Berk’s second solo exhibition at Recession Art, opened last night to great excitement. Thanks to all the Megan Berk friends and fans who came out for our season opener. For those who didn’t make it, come check out the show through October 6th and enjoy our photo gallery from the reception. You can also purchase work from the show in our online store or email us with any inquiries.
Opening September 7, 6-10 pmIn Stillness This Fiction is Real, Megan Berk’s second solo show at Recession Art, includes new paintings, prints and sculptural objects by the artist. Berk draws on personal photographs, movie stills, clippings from home & garden magazines, as well some of her earliest memories to create works that present an imperfect encounter with grace. Berk states, ‘It is very difficult to find a way to talk about the problems with beauty. It seems better to try to present something of beauty and let the problems show themselves. Beauty is complicated, and coming face-to-face with those complications draws us further in, closer to its core.’
The works in the exhibition are related both formally and thematically. The subtly textured, organic surfaces of Berk’s layered paintings on panel are echoed in a new series of silkscreen prints, created with the generous support of the Lower East Side Printshop’s Keyholder Residency program. In both, Berk wrestles to capture the tension in the quietest moments in the home and garden. The Almost Nice Domestic Device series, Berk’s first exhibited sculptural work, collapses the artist’s investigation of the relationship between nature and architecture down to a playful, tabletop scale.
Megan Berk was born in Los Angeles and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from Pratt Institute and has exhibited her work at Recession Art, Long Island University’s Salena Gallery, Silas Marder Gallery, Bowman/Bloom Gallery, Scope Art Fair and the German House of the German Consulate. Her work has been mentioned in the L Magazine, California Modern, Psychiana and the New York Times.
Image: Megan Berk, Dinner Hour, 2013. Silkscreen, variable edition of 10, 33” x 24”
Having spent this summer interning at Recession Art I have had the opportunity to participate in installing a few shows over the past months. Although the previous shows have featured some particularly great work, Color War is the one that has stood out to me from the rest. It is due in part to the vibrancy and the cohesion of palette of the work, as well as the more playful tone that many of the works exhibit.
Of all the work in the exhibition my personal favorites have to be the two paintings by Lindsey Warren. It is not that the work is more serious in tone compared to the others, but that it feels like these painting capture a more subtle moment in time. While many of the other pieces focus on surreal imagery and ideas, Warren’s work exhibits a photographic realism that grounds the work in a more familiar context. She paints palm trees in the midday sun and the shadows of people conversing, cast against a wall at dusk. The graphic nature of the work evokes pop art and to a degree even paint by number paintings in the way the colors are so meticulously delineated.
Work like this that naturally lends itself to acrylic painting. In acrylic it is relatively easy to keep colors from blending due to how quickly the paint dries. This allows for one to achieve a graphic look much more easily than with oil pant. Yet, to my surprise these paintings are both done in oil. It would have been a much easier task for Warren to paint these in acrylic, but it makes the work all the better and more impressive that they are not. They lack the plastic synthetic look of acrylic and instead have a beautiful velvety texture. I cannot imagine the amount of effort and time she must have put into these paintings, waiting for each color to dry before moving on to the next. The colors them selves appear to radiate outwards from the center of the paintings because of the unified palette Warren employs.
Warren’s work is to me the highlight of the show and Color War as a whole is a definite must see. All the work is very strong and supports each other and the premises of the exhibition. Color War is only on for another week so make sure to come to Recession Art and see it before August 9th! Check out these photos from the show’s opening here, and for more work from Lindsey Warren click here.
– Zachary Marshall
Submissions have been extended for the first Recession Art Print Exchange, Fluctuations, curated by Anthony Tino and juried by the Recession Art staff with guest jurors Jon Irving and collaborative printmaker Kyle Simon.
19 artists will be selected to participate in creating original prints in an edition size of 21. Each participant will receive their own, complete portfolio of this exchange and the additional prints will be on view during a reception that will be held on September 27th 2013.
The Recession Art mission offers opportunities to artists as well as collectors. This print exchange is intended to stimulate a conversation between these two practices. Because of this, the theme of our print exchange will be the very idea of exchanging; fluctuations between giving and receiving.
Prints must be delivered to 47 Bergen St, Brooklyn NY by September 20th, 7:00 pm
Reception at 47 Bergen St: September 27th, 7:00-9:00 pm
