Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes... Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an explosion into unknown areas. (Arshile Gorky)
Julia Schwartz is a Los Angeles-based artist whose recent paintings could be called neo- or millennial abstractions. Historically abstract painting has been acknowledged for its formal engagement with the paint itself. However, the unconscious also played an important role. This new form of abstraction is not necessarily a quest for something unknown as much as it is a inquiry into beauty or possibly enlightenment--a more conscious abstraction, you could say. The colors are expressive, like those of abstract representational painter Georgia O'Keeffe or hard-edge painter Helen Lundeberg, evoking a wider range of emotions. Happiness and joy seem to merge with our hopes and fears. Schwartz's work reflects a painter's desire to see her own feelings expressed back on herself.
For her ongoing series The Hollow Sea, which was inspired by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan of March 2011, Schwartz explores what it is "to be an island" metaphorically, geographically and emotionally. The first works in the series were smaller landscapes or studies of islands, which developed into larger mappings, where islands become metaphors for isolation in the landscape, and the horizon line becomes a compass.
Three paintings from this series were recently selected by a blind jury of renowned curators for the upcoming Pacific Coast exhibition Issue No 97 of New American Paintings. Schwartz was one of forty painters chosen from five states and over one thousand applicants.
Over thirty paintings are currently available for exhibition. They can be viewed HERE.
Julia Schwartz is a Los Angeles-based artist whose recent paintings could be called neo- or millennial abstractions. Historically abstract painting has been acknowledged for its formal engagement with the paint itself. However, the unconscious also played an important role. This new form of abstraction is not necessarily a quest for something unknown as much as it is a inquiry into beauty or possibly enlightenment--a more conscious abstraction, you could say. The colors are expressive, like those of abstract representational painter Georgia O'Keeffe or hard-edge painter Helen Lundeberg, evoking a wider range of emotions. Happiness and joy seem to merge with our hopes and fears. Schwartz's work reflects a painter's desire to see her own feelings expressed back on herself.
For her ongoing series The Hollow Sea, which was inspired by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan of March 2011, Schwartz explores what it is "to be an island" metaphorically, geographically and emotionally. The first works in the series were smaller landscapes or studies of islands, which developed into larger mappings, where islands become metaphors for isolation in the landscape, and the horizon line becomes a compass.
Three paintings from this series were recently selected by a blind jury of renowned curators for the upcoming Pacific Coast exhibition Issue No 97 of New American Paintings. Schwartz was one of forty painters chosen from five states and over one thousand applicants.
Over thirty paintings are currently available for exhibition. They can be viewed HERE.
