Michael J. Abraham

"Safe At Home" Contemporary Pastel Hyperrealist Still Life Interior Painting

2024

Contemporary pastel toned hyperrealist still life painting of a light switch by Texas-based artist Michael J. Abraham. Recently featured in "Michael J. Abraham: Quasi-Realism" at Ree...

Realist still life painting by contemporary Houston artist Scott Woodard. The work features an opulent interior setting with multiple vases and sculptures set against a large portrai...

Intimate paintings represented by unmade beds and tossed sheets, absent of any human evidence, on intentionally blank, somewhat rough backgrounds. The empty bed in these paintings represents a place for grief, isolation or healing. As such, the work speaks to our shared feeling of grief, with the understanding that while we all suffer in our individual ways, suffering is universal. Source material for this work are photographs the artist has both taken and found, and the intimate size of the paintings references the intimate nature of the subject matter. The backgrounds of the paintings are repeatedly painted and sanded, to create a frame and backdrop for the bedding that is flat, yet rough with work and time. The bedding itself is seen from different perspectives, but still indicates a scene of desolation and despair. While the series began in the fall of 2016, recent events—including the pandemic—have provided a new dimension to the work and have compelled Serpick to consider the themes in light of these events. Our forced isolation and the challenges it has brought to our physical and mental health provides an additional shared experience from which to consider grief and eventual healing. Biography Stephanie Serpick is a painter whose work explores themes of isolation, grief, and healing. Her work has been shown in various exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally, and she is a fellow at several residencies, most notably at the Florence Trust Studios in London, MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, and the Vermont Studio Center, where she was awarded a full fellowship and stipend to attend. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Sweet Lorraine Gallery in Brooklyn, the College of Southern Nevada, and a two-person exhibition at The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute at the Museum of Art at Pratt in Utica NY...