“Life is ragged; loss hurts; painting is messy, and pictures don’t stand still.” Jennifer Berkowitz, Moving Pictures
Artist Jennifer Berkowitz’s breakout solo exhibition Moving Pictures vividly captures the complex zeitgeist of 2023. With this series, she pulls viewers through a visceral journey of intersecting themes of loss, displacement, and renewal: at once beautiful and unnerving.
Moving Pictures opens at Keystone Art Space Gallery, 338 S Avenue 16, Los Angeles on Saturday, April 8 with an opening reception from 5-9 pm. The show runs through April 17 with the artist present on April 9, 15, and 16, from 12-5 pm. Gallery hours are Tues-Sun 12-5 pm.
As an artist steeped in movement and innovation, Berkowitz is always sensitive to the complex interplay between her interior experiences as a woman and mother, and the vulnerability of life itself. It may feel like we are now free of the burdens of the past three years, yet still something is not quite right. The show’s images reflect the tentative rebirth of wounded souls emerging from isolation and fear. A cocoon-like sheath surrounds writhing figures; portraiture is ripped and woven into new forms; and animation tracks disembodied arms, elbows, and legs as they move. Their journey forward is both inviting and unsettling.
Each image and animation is an element of the greater picture, and each one deploys its own technique and materials. Berkowitz has stitched existing images together, smeared salt and watercolor on mylar, and hacked into painted wooden panels. She deconstructs and rebuilds subjects, while revealing and concealing forms. Each image emerges from layers of paint that are applied in techniques ranging from thin, dripping washes to thick, impasto strokes.
Jennifer Berkowitz is a Los Angeles-based artist whose boundless curiosity is expressed in painting, animation, and printmaking. She deepened her study of painting with the great California figurative artist Elmer Bischoff at UC Berkeley, where she received her BFA. Her love of movement and time-based arts fueled her career, and brought her many awards, as a creative director and designer of motion graphics for television and film. Jennifer taught motion graphics at UCLA, and maintained studios in San Francisco and Paris. Her work has been exhibited at the de Young Museum, the SFMOMA Gallery, and internationally. Through the past decade, Berkowitz has created multiple series of work that are driven by raw psychological, emotional and political inspiration.
Keystone Arts Space features over 50 artists’ studios and Keystone Gallery, an exhibition space, located in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles.
