Jeffrey Schwartz will be showing new work at Greene Contemporary the month of September 2006. An opening on Friday, September 1st from 6 to 9 pm will preview the exhibition that will run from Saturday September 2 through Saturday September 30.
Schwartz grew up on an island near Seattle, Washington and he never considered that he would be living in Florida. However, he now loves the lush landscape and the light here. Schwartz says he is partially "rooted in the tradition of representational painting." He is also open to surprise and chance and uses "observation as a point of departure." His process is to have an idea and then work through it, often, in series. If he sees something in the work it can shift his focus, attention and direction. For Schwartz, the painting is always about the light and "how it creates color and form." He says his painting needs a reference like a piece of fruit or a flower. It is how he makes decisions. For him it is "a way to balance ideas." He is attracted to the physicality of an object.
This exhibition will focus on a series of small paintings that are eight by ten inches and larger works that are three by four feet. Schwartz enjoys painting what he finds in his garden, at the farmer's market or grocery store - all things that may find there way to his kitchen and table. "Lemons" presents a still life of a fruit we all know and yet he has charged the plate of yellow forms with a presence that is as much about the shades of yellow paint as it is about the recognizable contours of the citrus. In "Lemons in Window" Schwartz has opened up the space with the clear glass vessel and the transparent window. We navigate his brushwork to understand the illusion of forms he has painted. In "Magnolia on Gray" a work of thirty-six by forty-eight inches we are confronted with an enormous blossom that dominates a table. "Two Tomatoes" is a formal study in color, light and shadow while at the same time seducing the viewer with two substantial red ripe pomodori.
In his new work Schwartz is interested in a different sense of space and in the "connection to what (he) calls location." This new work is "more organic." He has "no pre-set ideas, it just sort of happens." The idea of the still life evolved from a color theory class he was teaching at Ringling School. He was doing a demonstration and liked what he saw so he began doing a series of paintings.
He counts among his influences Jake Berthot, John Walker and Stanley Lewis with
whom he has studied at different times in the past. Schwartz received his BFA from The
School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA in painting and drawing from
American University in Washington, D.C. He has also studied at Chautauqua in New
York, The Vermont Studio and the Lorenzo di Medici School of Fine Arts in Florence,
Italy. He has been the winner of numerous awards and fellowships and has exhibited
nationally.
Schwartz has been teaching at the Ringling School of Art & Design since 1998. Before that he taught painting at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He lives in Sarasota with his wife Kate and their children Olivia and Alexander.
All quotes are from a conversation Schwartz had with Mark Ormond in his studio July 20, 2006