Billis Williams Gallery is pleased to present SHARON FEDER: ENTWINED the gallery’s fourth solo exhibition by the Los Angeles-based painter. The exhibition opens with a reception on May 9th and continues through June 6th.
We work very hard to separate ourselves from the natural world. We create bubbles to insulate ourselves and to control as much as we can. For those living in cities, the disconnect from the natural world can be enormous.
These paintings ask to to feel the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world – to find the balance between living in modern society and yet to understand the importance of and respect for the natural world.
Dreamscape-like and magical, the paintings take us on a journey. Shadows from trees outside the frame fall on buildings. We look through an industrial building into landscapes. The rootball paintings are a new exploration for Feder. These compositions are a metaphor for the mess we are in but also provide a path forward. We must trust that we will be able to find our way through and out – the follow the sometimes convoluted paths forward.
The paintings ask us to revel in the textural surfaces and mark-making. Feder’s palette knife and brush work are meticulous yet exuberant – there is depth to the surfaces and a play of color that gives a unique richness to the work. These painting are about materiality and incorporate the tactile sense of bark, of concrete, of wood planks.
We think we can control every aspect of our environment but as recent fires, storms, and flooding have shown us, nature has a way of reminding us that we are not in control. These paintings show us how to hold multiple truths – to hold the constructed world and the natural world simultaneously in our consciousness – the exist in both spaces.
Sharon Feder’s paintings ask us to feel these connections – to see how all things are interconnected and to understand the importance of finding balance.
Sharon Feder (b. 1957, Boulder, Colorado) completed BFA coursework at the University of Washington, Seattle and received her BA in Fine Art from Regis University, Denver. She is represented by Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles and Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver, where her paintings had been featured in many solo, paired, and group shows as well as art fairs. Feder’s work has been selected for solo and paired solo exhibitions at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver Botanic Gardens, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Denver Performing Arts Complex’s Buell Theatre, Denver International Airport, Ironton Gallery and Denver Theatre District. Invited group shows include those at Museum of Outdoor Art, Billis Gallery Manhattan and LA, Curtis Fine Art Center, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Her paintings are in many corporate and private collections.
