"Robert Sagerman : Workings"
2009-11-05 until 2009-12-26
Brian Gross Fine Art
San Francisco, CA, USA United States of America

Brian Gross Fine Art is pleased to announce Workings, an exhibition of new paintings by New York artist, Robert Sagerman. The exhibition opens Thursday, November 5, with a reception from 5:30-7:30 pm. The artist will be giving a gallery talk Saturday, November 7, at 2pm. Robert Sagerman's work consists of rich, transcendent color fields that activate the eye. He builds up the lush surfaces by methodically applying thousands of daubs of oil paint to the canvas, layer upon layer. As a result, the paintings possess sculptural qualities that make for a unique optical experience, with the vibrant color palette contrasting the deep shadows created by the surface texture. Though the works are highly conceptual and process oriented, the complexity of the colors and sensuality of the thick layers of paint make for beautifully imposing pieces that assert their physicality.

In his gallery talk, Workings: The Realization of Objecthood in Painting and Jewish Mystical Practice, Sagerman will elucidate the relationship of Jewish mysticism to his work. For him, the meditative repetition of his working process becomes a transcendent experience. Influenced by the spiritual practices of the mystics, the artist sees his paintings as „attempts to apprehend the immaterial, engaged through material means. ‰ In this way, the resulting objects are merely corporeal reflections of the intangible processes, or „workings,‰ involved in their creation.

Part of Sagerman's process involves meticulously counting and journaling the thousands of strokes of paint used to create each piece. The total number of strokes becomes the title of the work (such as 14,113), referencing the temporal process of working, which Sagerman sees as the immaterial essence of the painting. The artist aims to capture and illuminate the temporal element of his process through a digital component in the exhibition.

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 his PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University in 2008. Sagerman has participated in numerous exhibitions in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and Germany. The San Francisco exhibition continues through December 26 and is his third at Brian Gross Fine Art.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of California

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Jeff Ramirez : This is the life - These are the real things - Cella Gallery Call for Artists : LIQUID CITIES - International Video Art Limousine Festival . London, April 2010 - International ArtExpo Rita Kashap Homage to Friedrich S. - Galerie Vinogrado Romance, Passion, Eroticism : The Art of Love to Feature Work by Walter King - Galleria Evangelia The Thoughts Series by D. Lammie-Hanson - Big Top Art Gallery Call for Artists : Seeking 300 Glass Pieces - Saco Msueum EDGE OF INDONESIA - Edge Gallery Suzi Evalenko - What Mattered Most : A Life in Art and Letters - First Street Gallery Wayne Quilliam : Photography in Context of Indiginous Australian Culture - Art Place Berlin - The Forum for Contemporary Art and Intercultural Project at Park Inn Tim Etchells : A Solo Exhibition - Gasworks Gallery Alberto Giacomett i: Woman with Chariot. Triumph and Death - Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Street Seen : The Psychological Gesture in American Photography, 1940-1959 - Milwaukee Art Museum Tino Sehgal - Guggenheim Museum Donnie 2010 : Contest and Exhibit - Karin Kuhlmann Earns Honorable Metion - MOCA, the Museum of Computer Art