Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5
Judith BerryCollapsing Wall and Sticks2024
2024
$1,500
£1,113.67
€1,297.73
CA$2,082.48
A$2,329.39
CHF 1,212.23
MX$28,675.58
NOK 15,422.05
SEK 14,468.93
DKK 9,682.38
Shipping
Retrieving quote...The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation
About the Item
Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lush, painterly oils are meditations on the colour green—sap green, olive green, vert tendre—bathed in the warm light of the golden hour. These works represent the concretization of nature, an evolution which contains traces of past forms incarnating as if they are still in transition. The figures in these portraits have a tenuous hold on reality. There is an oneiric energy here, a sense that the animal and human forms are mid manifestation and could easily change back into abstractions or plant life.
Most remarkable about Berry’s new body of work is the equine (re)emergence. Horses have been a part of human history for millennia, they represent control and freedom, power and its lack. They’ve been used for transportation, war, entertainment, as well as deeply appreciated for their beauty; they are powerful creatures able to run at incredible speeds, yet as prey, they are easily spooked. In Portrait with Horse and Pumpkin, a figure offers a bucket of water containing the reflection of a pumpkin to a masked horse. Guardians shows two horses, sentinels or oracles, standing by a liminal frontier. Their coats and hoods give a dual impression of protection and restriction. In The World Upside Town Triptych a horse is on its back in a posture of joy, vulnerability, or defeat. Long, multicoloured bead-like strands of colour that often appeared in Berry’s past paintings slither across the canvas. The coats of the horses are dotted with tiny shrubbery, giving the sense that the animal itself is a landscape.
Landscape Hood reveals a being whose red core is obscured by curtain-like hair overgrown with neat rows of vegetation. This figure could be a priest of a mushroom cult in some otherworldly dimension. In Double Portrait with Blocks two figures are cut through with red, the red interiors in many of these works call to mind the hidden pulse of blood within bodies. Attached to their heads are blocks which could represent thoughts or energy blockages. Fissure conjures a landscape that is destroyed even as it is imagined.
Berry has a notable interest in fusing and deconstructing forms, proven by her longstanding investigation into the dynamic between abstraction and figuration. Her surreal symbolic language that is emerging now is poetic and evocative, an analysis of the way forms come into being and of the interconnectedness of life. In Portrait, identities are obscured, but the energies and structures underlying things is revealed. There is a quiet strangeness in these paintings, along with an eerie sense of proximity to the primordial soup of creation. The paintings in Portrait aren’t portraits in any kind of traditional sense; there are no identities, there are no individual personalities being intimated. Yet they are figurations of beings all the same, perhaps catalogued as an artist-anthropologist might document their discoveries in some foreign land.
Judith Berry was born in London, Ontario and grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and spent one year in the Studio Program at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. She has had solo exhibitions across Canada in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. Judith has also shown in numerous group exhibitions including exhibitions at the Musée du Québec and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. She has received funding from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council. Her work is in various collections including: the Musee du Québec, the City of Ottawa, the City of Montreal, the Royal Bank, and the Art Bank of the Canada Council. She has served as a jury member for the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the City of Ottawa.
- Creator:Judith Berry (1961, Canadian)
- Creation Year:2024
- Dimensions:Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Montreal, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU47616250642
Judith Berry
Judith Berry was born in London, Ontario and grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and spent one year in the Studio Program at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. She has had solo exhibitions across Canada in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. Judith has also shown in numerous group exhibitions including exhibitions at the Musée du Québec and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. She has received funding from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council. Her work is in various collections including: the Musee du Québec, the City of Ottawa, the City of Montreal, the Royal Bank, and the Art Bank of the Canada Council. She has served as a jury member for the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the City of Ottawa.
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Professional Seller
Every seller passes strict standards for authenticity and reliability
Established in 1996
1stDibs seller since 2014
104 sales on 1stDibs
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: Montreal, Canada
- Return Policy
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.More From This Seller
View AllDouble Portrait with Sticks
By Judith Berry
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The artist thinks of their paintings primarily as landscapes. Lately, these landscapes have taken on a more manufactured feel rather than organic. At first glance, the subjects may a...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood Panel
Double Portrait with Sticks
By Judith Berry
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lu...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
Stick Excursion
By Judith Berry
Located in Montreal, Quebec
I think of my paintings primarily as landscapes. Recently, these landscapes appear to be more manufactured than organic. At first glance the subjects seem to be monumental forms such...
Category
2010s Abstract Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
Heads and Walls
By Judith Berry
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lu...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
Finding a Way Forward
By Judith Berry
Located in Montreal, Quebec
The artist thinks of their paintings primarily as landscapes. Lately, these landscapes have taken on a more manufactured feel rather than organic. At first glance, the subjects may a...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood Panel
Finding a Way Forward
By Judith Berry
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lu...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Wood Panel
You May Also Like
Deeper Into The Sticks, Painting, Oil on Canvas
By John Dowling
Located in Yardley, PA
Oil and pencil on canvas :: Painting :: Contemporary :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the artist :: Ready to Hang: Yes :: Signed: Yes :: Sig...
Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
Materials
Oil
Circus and Straw
Located in Kansas City, MO
Jennifer Bricker-Pugh
Circus and Straw
Acrylic on Panel
Year: 2022
Size: 48x36x1.5in
Signed, dated and inscribed by hand
COA provided
Ready to hang
Ref.: 924802-1083
Jennifer is an ...
Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Panel
$3,990 Sale Price
46% Off
Ky Anderson "Felled" Acrylic and Oil on Canvas
By Ky Anderson
Located in New York, NY
Of her recent work, Ky Anderson states, "After taking a couple of months off from painting, I returned to the studio with a sense of urgency and dove in without a preconceived concep...
Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
Materials
Oil, Acrylic, Canvas
Stick It: Not Enough to be in Love
By Janet Lage
Located in Westport, CT
Janet Lage’s energetic abstract pieces are loaded with writing (graffiti), color, form and expressionistic brushstrokes.
For Lage, the painting process is an alliance of language an...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Paintings
Materials
Ink, Oil, Graphite, Canvas
Forgotten Boundary
By Allison Gildersleeve
Located in Dallas, TX
In her work, Allison Gildersleeve addresses the theme of memory, exploring the phenomenon of past and present becoming collapsed or entwined by the emotional experience.
Gildersle...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Fence, Painting, Oil on Canvas
By Stephanie Berry
Located in Yardley, PA
This work is done with quality oils, cold wax, and netting on stretched linen. It evolved into a landscape type scene with what I see as an old fence. :: ...
Category
2010s Contemporary Paintings
Materials
Oil
