My work is experiential, meditative and intuitive. I am interested in the light and rhythm created by repetitive and deliberate gesture in these paintings and drawings. I brush, wipe, rub, and scrape, concealing and revealing underlying layers in various states of solidity and transparency, often incorporating the color, texture and pattern of the supports. In the interaction of chance and control, gesture and structure, openness and containment, I hope to create a sense of movement and mystery about what is hidden and what revealed. Though the work is abstract, some of my inspiration derives from the light, color and industrial landscape of the Gowanus neighborhood I see framed through my studio windows.
Emily Berger is a graduate of Brown University and holds an MFA in painting from Columbia University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in many galleries, universities and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in Bogota, and The National Academy of Art in New York which awarded her the John Hultberg Memorial Prize for Painting. Recently her work was shown in Brooklyn at Five Myles Gallery in Process and Synthesis, a four person exhibit, and at 490 Gallery and Soapbox Galleries in Seeing Through, with Nancy Manter and Anne Russinof. She was also included in gallery exhibits at Sideshow, Janet Kurnatowski, Outlet, and in Phaedo at StorefrontBushwick, reviewed by Patrick Neal in hyperallergic.com as The Many Faces of Abstraction. Upcoming group exhibits include Sensory Impact at Morgan Stanley Global Headquarters in Purchase, New York, and the American Abstract Artists 75 Anniversary Print Portfolio exhibition originating at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and traveling to Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, and Tulane University among others. Her paintings are soon to be exhibited in vis a vis/Emily Berger and Claire Seidl, at The Painting Center in New York City.
In Superb Painters: Emily Berger, in the Steven Alexander Journal, August, 2013, Alexander writes:
Emily Berger lives and works in Brooklyn. In her modest scale paintings and works on paper, she employs the most direct means to explore nuances of surface, movement and color. Layering and scraping, working wet and dry, thin and thick, she infuses each piece with concentrated emotional resonances that are like waves of sound, cycles of thought, visible histories. Her ability to sustain focused intensity within her simple program of horizontal striations has created a body of varied, deeply felt and starkly beautiful works.
Website
http://emilyberger.net
