Jerald Melberg Gallery is pleased to present the eighth solo exhibition of new abstract landscape paintings by Brian Rutenberg. With these new oil paintings on linen and paper, the artist returns once again to his reflections on the landscapes of the South Carolina Low Country.
A South Carolina native, Rutenberg received a BFA from the College of Charleston and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the College of Charleston and delivered the commencement speech in the spring of 2018. Among his numerous awards and achievements, he is a Fulbright Scholar, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow and an Irish Museum of Modern Art Work Programme Recipient. Since 1985 Rutenberg has been honored with over 100 gallery and museum exhibitions across the United States, including the Hoyt Center for the Arts, Saginaw Art Museum, the Gibbes Museum of Art, Butler Institute of Art and Greenville County Museum of Art.
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Brian Rutenberg: Point of Pine
March 1 - June 12, 2021Artist Statement
Coolness—
the sound of the bellas it leaves the bell.
-Yosa Buson (1716–1783)
Humidity made me a painter. All of the paintings in this new series called Point of Pine are meditations on imaginary trees as seen through veils of South Carolina Lowcountry heat. The solitary tree has been a primary image in my work for forty-five years; my first paintings were watercolors of a loblolly pine near my childhood home in Myrtle Beach, where I spent a lot of time because I had buck teeth and was horrible at sports. Little did I know, the directness and simplicity of those studies would provide me with a lifetime of imagery.
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STIRRING SHORE 2020
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Flood and Field
Paintings on Linen -
STIRRING SHORE 5 2020
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STIRRING SHORE 2 2020
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POINTING 4 2020
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POINT OF PINE 3 2020
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POINTING
Paintings on Paper -
As I move around to the other side of the tree, that which was hidden becomes visible. Likewise, a painting doesn’t reveal itself all at once, but in flecks of partial recognition. I love parades and processionals for this reason. A processional abandons its starting point. Travel eliminates its origins. We are where we go. I paint because I can never see enough places. So, I return to one. My movement becomes a tree, the tree becomes a thought, and the thought returns me to the wealth of humidity.
- Brian Rutenberg -
Point of Pine
On view May 1 - June 12, 2021 -
Brian Rutenberg
Coffee & Conversation May 1, 2021
