Liz Sweibel

Liz Sweibel, Untitled (Scrapings #10), 2016, Wood, Paint, Found Objects

2016

The freestanding sculptures in this portfolio are made from the “sticks”: a pile of found wood that Sweibel has been pulling from to make new works since about 2002. The pile consisted of more than a dozen four- to seven-foot lengths of hardwood, each an uneven inch in depth and width. The sticks were warped, with worn yellow paint on one side and raw wood on the other three. Over the years she has painted the raw sides of the sticks, cut the wood into shorter lengths, and sliced paint off – and kept the residue from these actions. Sweibel has also made sculptures ranging from full-length sticks to tiny stick splinters. She built these sculptures using sliced-off paint. Timeworn materials and objects have an intelligence that the artist looks for and listens to. Shaping and reshaping material to find new form and elicit new insights in the material itself is the territory she is mining. The limitations of the process are its strengths. Her work is concerned with fragility, precariousness, adaptability, and strength. It is a visual response to powerful yet unseen forces - like wind and thoughts - that threaten, propel, ruin, and protect. Liz Sweibel is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, installation, and digital photography and video. Her spare, personal language of abstraction transforms ordinary materials into statements about connectedness and responsibility: every action has an impact, the effects persist in space and over time, and we are accountable. By drawing attention to simple, ordinary “stuff of life” and referencing both shared and personal history, Sweibel’s work explores and reflects back fundamental experiences in response to our world and relationships. Her intention is to reinvigorate viewers’ awareness of the everyday – in its raw beauty and precariousness – in hopes that they might bring heightened senses of sight and care to their daily lives. Sweibel has participated in solo, two-person, and group exhibits in New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan, and Tennessee since 1998. In 2016, Sweibel’s work was in the group shows Lightly Structured at Sculpture Space NYC, Precarious Constructs at the Venus Knitting Art...

The freestanding sculptures in this portfolio are made from the “sticks”: a pile of found wood that Sweibel has been pulling from to make new works since about 2002. The pile consisted of more than a dozen four- to seven-foot lengths of hardwood, each an uneven inch in depth and width. The sticks were warped, with worn yellow paint on one side and raw wood on the other three. Over the years she has painted the raw sides of the sticks, cut the wood into shorter lengths, and sliced paint off – and kept the residue from these actions. Sweibel has also made sculptures ranging from full-length sticks to tiny stick splinters. She built these sculptures using sliced-off paint. Timeworn materials and objects have an intelligence that the artist looks for and listens to. Shaping and reshaping material to find new form and elicit new insights in the material itself is the territory she is mining. The limitations of the process are its strengths. Her work is concerned with fragility, precariousness, adaptability, and strength. It is a visual response to powerful yet unseen forces - like wind and thoughts - that threaten, propel, ruin, and protect. Liz Sweibel is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, installation, and digital photography and video. Her spare, personal language of abstraction transforms ordinary materials into statements about connectedness and responsibility: every action has an impact, the effects persist in space and over time, and we are accountable. By drawing attention to simple, ordinary “stuff of life” and referencing both shared and personal history, Sweibel’s work explores and reflects back fundamental experiences in response to our world and relationships. Her intention is to reinvigorate viewers’ awareness of the everyday – in its raw beauty and precariousness – in hopes that they might bring heightened senses of sight and care to their daily lives. Sweibel has participated in solo, two-person, and group exhibits in New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan, and Tennessee since 1998. In 2016, Sweibel’s work was in the group shows Lightly Structured at Sculpture Space NYC, Precarious Constructs at the Venus Knitting Art...

Deborah Freedman is a painter who lives and works in New York City. Her work is deeply informed by nature –especially the Catskill Mountains - and landscape painting of the 19th and early 20th century. After 9/11 when the Ashokan Reservoir became almost inaccessible and ”threatened” what had been idyllic became “disturbed”. The pictures became less ideal and less about location and more abstract and more emotional. The titles; Good Night Irene, Praying for Rain, Cold Spring, Disturbed Landscapes and The End of Snow describe these concerns. “This is landscape as an anatomy lesson; landscape conflated with human form. Landscape which holds the promise of physical pleasure. The abstraction holds the emotional content. If it sounds simplistic, imagine trying to organize a coherent vision of something that does not exist. It mixes the personal with the impersonal, landscape in the guise of familiarity.” Stewart Waltzer. Artnet. A partial list of collections include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Public Library, Rutgers University, The Department of State, the Library of Congress, IPCNY,The Hess Collection, CITI, Morgan Guarantee Trust, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. Freedman is a co-founder with Marjorie VanDyke of VanDeb Editions, a printmaking studio dedicated to collaborating with artists to experiment with intaglio and monotype, located in Long Island City, NYC. Residencies include the MacDowell Colony on a printmaking residency making monoprints using etched plates with highly textured surfaces. The tradition there is to invite other residents for studio visits or presentations which led to a collaboration with Alan Fletcher...

The freestanding sculptures in this portfolio are made from the “sticks”: a pile of found wood that Sweibel has been pulling from to make new works since about 2002. The pile consist...

Andra Samelson’s work explores the relationship of microcosm and macrocosm, the celestial and terrestrial. Her imagery is often associated with molecular and galactic systems. Combin...

Andra Samelson’s work explores the relationship of microcosm and macrocosm, the celestial and terrestrial. Her imagery is often associated with molecular and galactic systems. Combin...

Abstract expressionist assemblage with found objects typical of an artist's studio floor by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957). Applied paint brushes, caps and tubes of paint, a few letters, putty knife, with splashes of color on wood. Unsigned. From the collection of the artist's work. Unframed. Image size: 11.25"H x 25.75"W Bay Area artist and art educator Michael Pauker was born in New York in 1957 and knew he wanted to be an artist from the age of 15. He earned a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at SUNY Purchase in his native state of New York. In 1989 he went on to earn an M.F.A at Mills College in Oakland and was awarded the City of Oakland Artist Fellowship in Painting. He has been a Bay Area resident since 1988. His work has been exhibited widely across the U.S., as well as in Japan and Costa Rica, and is included in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibitions include: 2007 Contemporary Art Museum, San Jose, Costa Rica 2007 “The Ebay Art Project,” Works/San Jose, San Jose, CA 2003 “Found Imagery: The Art of Collage,” Fresno Art Museum,Fresno, CA 2003 “Cut, Copy, Paste,” De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA 2003 “20th Annual Exhibition,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 2002 “40 by 40...

Abstract expressionist oil painting with assembled objects by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957). Against a yellow and black background, the artist has attached several objects, including plastic letters, cigar boxes, and glass slides. Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of his work. Unframed. Image size: 20"H x 24"W Bay Area artist and art educator Michael Pauker was born in New York in 1957 and knew he wanted to be an artist from the age of 15. He earned a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at SUNY Purchase in his native state of New York. In 1989 he went on to earn an M.F.A at Mills College in Oakland and was awarded the City of Oakland Artist Fellowship in Painting. He has been a Bay Area resident since 1988. His work has been exhibited widely across the U.S., as well as in Japan and Costa Rica, and is included in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibitions include: 2007 Contemporary Art Museum, San Jose, Costa Rica 2007 “The Ebay Art Project,” Works/San Jose, San Jose, CA 2003 “Found Imagery: The Art of Collage,” Fresno Art Museum,Fresno, CA 2003 “Cut, Copy, Paste,” De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA 2003 “20th Annual Exhibition,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA 2002 “40 by 40...

A wonderful abstract expressionist three dimensional construction by American artist Varujan Boghosian (1926-2020). Boghosian was born in New Britain, CT and after serving in the United States Navy, he attended Central Connecticut Teachers College and the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. In 1953, he had a Fulbright grant to paint in Italy, and from 1956 to 1959, he worked with Josef Albers, geometric abstractionist, at Yale University where he earned both his BFA and MFA. Boghosian became a professor of sculpture at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and became primarily known for his assemblages in which he uses a variety of incongruous objects such as parts of weathered barn doors, antique dolls' heads, old leather, marbles, and ping-pong balls. This construction consists of antique lithographs laid on board, including a shooting target sheet, and metal jacks, all presented on an antique celestial map...

A fine abstract expressionist assemblage by American artist Varujan Boghosian (1926-2020). Boghosian was born in New Britain, CT and after serving in the United States Navy, he attended Central Connecticut Teachers College and the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. In 1953, he had a Fulbright grant to paint in Italy, and from 1956 to 1959, he worked with Josef Albers, geometric abstractionist, at Yale University where he earned both his BFA and MFA. Boghosian became a professor of sculpture at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and became primarily known for his assemblages in which he uses a variety of incongruous objects such as parts of weathered barn...

A fine abstract expressionist assemblage by American artist Varujan Boghosian (1926-2020). Boghosian was born in New Britain, CT and after serving in the United States Navy, he attended Central Connecticut Teachers College and the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. In 1953, he had a Fulbright grant to paint in Italy, and from 1956 to 1959, he worked with Josef Albers, geometric abstractionist, at Yale University where he earned both his BFA and MFA. Boghosian became a professor of sculpture at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and became primarily known for his assemblages in which he uses a variety of incongruous objects such as parts of weathered barn doors, antique dolls' heads, old leather, marbles, and ping-pong balls. This three piece assemblage includes a Union Leader tobacco can...

A fine abstract expressionist assemblage by American artist Varujan Boghosian (1926-2020). Boghosian was born in New Britain, CT and after serving in the United States Navy, he attended Central Connecticut Teachers College and the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. In 1953, he had a Fulbright grant to paint in Italy, and from 1956 to 1959, he worked with Josef Albers, geometric abstractionist, at Yale University where he earned both his BFA and MFA. Boghosian became a professor of sculpture at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and became primarily known for his assemblages in which he uses a variety of incongruous objects such as parts of weathered barn...