Jerald Melberg Gallery is pleased to present the ninth solo exhibition of abstracted landscape paintings by Brian Rutenberg. The opening reception will be held at the gallery on Friday evening, January 13, with the artist in attendance from 6-8pm.
With these new oil paintings on linen and paper, the artist reflects on the duality of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he was born and raised - a neon resort town full of amusement parks and arcades that happens to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscapes on the East Coast. While the Lowcountry continues to have a profound impact on the artist, Rutenberg has lived and worked over half his life in New York City. Rutenberg states, When you put all of those things together, what you get are paintings that belong to their place. I’ve never needed a position because I have a place. I don’t paint South Carolina; I manufacture a place, and South Carolina becomes it.
Brian 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.
