Joe Walentini, Abstract Art Online
Artist Profiles – March 2005
Emily Berger: Inside/Outside Space
Originally from Boston, Emily Berger has been exhibiting her art since the late 1970s in several New York venues. In 1976 she received a B.A. from Brown University and in 1979 a M.F.A. from Columbia University. She recently became a member of The Painting Center and was the curator for the Nature Abstracted show held there last December. This autumn, Emily Berger’s art work will be featured in a two person exhibition at the Painting Center. The work included here is from 2000 to the present.
A very quick take on Emily Berger’s art is that it consistently engages the grid. Yet it is inaccurate to characterize her as a ‘grid’ painter. Yes, the vertical and horizontal elements are recognizable but they hardly grab the focus or impose their characteristically overt sense of order. Nor does the work attempt to suppress or subvert the grid, which provides so much energy for artists such as Pat Passlof or Pat Lipsky. For Berger, the latticework simply serves as a structure for the painting. So much else is going on in these pieces that the underlying presence of the grid is no more, and probably less, important then other components such as surface, contrast and color.
Berger’s art breaks out into two different types of work which is as notable for its similarities as for its differences. On one hand there are the works on paper which include a great deal of thick layering; primarily from the application of oil sticks. These pieces tend to express a somber, somewhat claustrophobic quality; Color, when it is applied, is muted and mostly buried in the black medium except for the few places where it is allowed to peek out. The paintings stand in stark contrast to the paper works, first for the materials; all oil on canvas.Next, they are distinguished for how they differentiate themselves in exploring a more open sense of space. The paintings are overtly colorful and project a lighter mood than the paper pieces. Interestingly they are smaller in size which typically is the other way round. Finally, the works on paper strongly suggest interior space whereas the paintings more often reference exterior space. Now where are the similarities?
To begin with, the application of contrast is a major unifying factor. Another similarity is that both types of work often include some element of a curve (a subtle rebuke to the grid?). The works on paper appear to be constructed from several layers of material unlike the paintings which seem instead to possess a ‘dashed off’ quality. However, the latter impression is deceptive. In a conversation with the artist at her Brooklyn studio, she pointed out that the paintings are given the same attention as the paper works. That being the case it’s a credit to Berger that she is able to preserve such a light, elegant touch in the paintings given the effort involved. To pull this off without having it look false or otherwise labored represents an exceedingly difficult feat.
As to subject matter, the generic notion of interior and exterior space has been mentioned. But what they also project is an intangible quality of urban place. For example the paper pieces readily suggest somewhere underground like the New York subway system. You can almost hear its distinctive roaring clang and deep rumbling thunder emanating from this work. The paintings express a more open city view that references the skeletal structures found in bridges and new or decrepit builds or even street graffiti. But both types of work (but especially the works on paper) also hint at the psychological landscape of dreams.
If the city serves as the primary subject matter for Berger’s work, the content of her art is found in her response to what it means to live in New York Emily Berger has a lot to say about that in her paintings and drawings. The whole gamut is covered here: the constant rhythms discerned from the sounds of the city. The crushing claustrophobic density contrasted with an underlying sense of isolation and stark loneliness. But also, bits of irrepressible humor tossed in here and there like shards of colorful, albeit broken, glass. As with any great abstract painting, such impressions are not read directly from the work but rather are absorbed; and it is this experience which renders them all the more poignant.