Barbara Friedman & Tess Jenkins
The work of these two artists shares the sense of a presence that is conjured, as if arising from the paint itself. In Barbara Friedman鈥榮 ongoing series of paintings, 鈥淭he Hysterical Sublime,鈥� figures and creatures seem to coalesce out of an abstract, prismatic primordial soup. Friedman鈥檚 process begins with washes of oil paint spilled or poured onto oil-primed linen, color flowing into color, until imagery begins to suggest itself. Figurative elements are then coaxed out of this painterly effluvium. In Friedman鈥檚 words, 鈥淚鈥檓 making paintings that are fundamentally abstract that nibble around the edges of figuration.鈥� And 鈥渘ibbling鈥� is apropos: creatures, mouths, eyes, and body parts emerge, suggesting an animate phantasm, or perhaps the id incarnate.
Friedman鈥檚 imagery evokes the pre-verbal, the primordial, the hidden. 鈥淭hey can be grotesque and scary but I want them to be cuddly in a way 鈥� sometimes they are licking or sucking or kissing. Especially during Covid it was all the things we wanted to do 鈥� not necessarily sexual, but bodily contact.鈥� She notes that pandemics move across species, heightening both the fear and desire that we humans project onto wild animals.
The way Friedman brings imagery out of the murk 鈥� its 鈥渟urfacing鈥� 鈥� hints at a psychological undercurrent, the constant thrum of repressed anxiety, both individual and collective 鈥� but the paintings also contain a wild humor. 鈥淭he unknowable doesn鈥檛 reside in the abstraction, it鈥檚 in the combination, it鈥檚 parts, it鈥檚 hints, a glimmer of something.鈥� In this world, there鈥檚 space for the viewer to complete the picture.
In the work of Tess Jenkins, oil stick is combined with other materials, gradually accreting over time into thick layers until a form begins to emerge. The paint stick is applied wet-into-wet, the color mixed directly on the canvas. Using the dual nature of oil stick as a graphic drawing material that also has dense physicality, Jenkins pushes the medium via a process of mashing, grinding, building up and scraping away. Glitter is mixed in with the paint, loading it further, adding body and grit. In the areas where it glints through or lies on top of the paint, it exerts a flickering, dazzling opticality.
Jenkins works on over 50 paintings at once, sometimes taking years to complete a given piece. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a really long, labored process that feels like an excavation, a searching, a Frankenstein-like situation where I鈥檓 slowly trying to build up a charge until it feels like there鈥檚 something there.鈥� That something -- a sense of the animate, the electric, a presence sparking to life -- is further underscored by the spectral shimmer of the glitter. The phenomenological nature of this material adds an interactive quality to the work as it is positionally activated by the viewer. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something about the glitter, how it reacts to light as you鈥檙e moving around it, and its glinting -- it鈥檚 an active presence.鈥�
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The work of these two artists shares the sense of a presence that is conjured, as if arising from the paint itself. In Barbara Friedman鈥榮 ongoing series of paintings, 鈥淭he Hysterical Sublime,鈥� figures and creatures seem to coalesce out of an abstract, prismatic primordial soup. Friedman鈥檚 process begins with washes of oil paint spilled or poured onto oil-primed linen, color flowing into color, until imagery begins to suggest itself. Figurative elements are then coaxed out of this painterly effluvium. In Friedman鈥檚 words, 鈥淚鈥檓 making paintings that are fundamentally abstract that nibble around the edges of figuration.鈥� And 鈥渘ibbling鈥� is apropos: creatures, mouths, eyes, and body parts emerge, suggesting an animate phantasm, or perhaps the id incarnate.
Friedman鈥檚 imagery evokes the pre-verbal, the primordial, the hidden. 鈥淭hey can be grotesque and scary but I want them to be cuddly in a way 鈥� sometimes they are licking or sucking or kissing. Especially during Covid it was all the things we wanted to do 鈥� not necessarily sexual, but bodily contact.鈥� She notes that pandemics move across species, heightening both the fear and desire that we humans project onto wild animals.
The way Friedman brings imagery out of the murk 鈥� its 鈥渟urfacing鈥� 鈥� hints at a psychological undercurrent, the constant thrum of repressed anxiety, both individual and collective 鈥� but the paintings also contain a wild humor. 鈥淭he unknowable doesn鈥檛 reside in the abstraction, it鈥檚 in the combination, it鈥檚 parts, it鈥檚 hints, a glimmer of something.鈥� In this world, there鈥檚 space for the viewer to complete the picture.
In the work of Tess Jenkins, oil stick is combined with other materials, gradually accreting over time into thick layers until a form begins to emerge. The paint stick is applied wet-into-wet, the color mixed directly on the canvas. Using the dual nature of oil stick as a graphic drawing material that also has dense physicality, Jenkins pushes the medium via a process of mashing, grinding, building up and scraping away. Glitter is mixed in with the paint, loading it further, adding body and grit. In the areas where it glints through or lies on top of the paint, it exerts a flickering, dazzling opticality.
Jenkins works on over 50 paintings at once, sometimes taking years to complete a given piece. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a really long, labored process that feels like an excavation, a searching, a Frankenstein-like situation where I鈥檓 slowly trying to build up a charge until it feels like there鈥檚 something there.鈥� That something -- a sense of the animate, the electric, a presence sparking to life -- is further underscored by the spectral shimmer of the glitter. The phenomenological nature of this material adds an interactive quality to the work as it is positionally activated by the viewer. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something about the glitter, how it reacts to light as you鈥檙e moving around it, and its glinting -- it鈥檚 an active presence.鈥�
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