440 Gallery Announce Fred Bendheim Retrospective

440 Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by Brooklyn artist, Fred Bendheim, titled “Fred Bendheim: A Retrospective On the Theme Of Water”. The exhibition will run from January 14 – February 14, 2016. This will be Fred Bendheim’s second solo show at 440 Gallery and his first retrospective exhibition.

This will be Bendheim’s second solo show at 440 Gallery and his first retrospective exhibition. The show will include work from 1978 to the present, and will include paintings on canvas as well as the artist’s trademark work, shapings, shaped paintings on wood and pvc board and painted relief sculptures. The works on view will highlight the artist’s career and stylistic journey from early figurative paintings to his more recent abstractions. Water, in it’s many forms, is the unifying theme of the works. The artist has always been fascinated by the symbolic and metaphoric aspect of water and it’s ability to take on any form and color, to change it’s state from liquid to solid, and yet remain water. Works on view will include the 1978 painting, “The Red Wave”, one of the artist’s earliest works, painted in California, and showing the influence of a diverse range of interests from Henri Matisse to Hokusai. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Friday, January 15th from 5 – 8 PM. The artist will be giving a talk on the work at 440 Gallery on Saturday, January 30th at 4:40 PM.

Fred Bendheim’s current work spans the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Recently the art has taken the form of abstract, shaped paintings on wood or pvc board, called shapings. His subjects are abstract, but real: they are about the forms, lines, colors and their relationships to each other and the spaces that they inhabit. His work is based on principles; he does not rely only on the precedence of his own work, or the work of other artists. He works using a combination of intuition and visual principles of composition. He tries to keep his art alive, fresh, spontaneous and challenging. He finds that working in a non-rectangular format gives him a freedom to express visual impulses, and allows for surprising results.

440 Gallery is located at 440 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, between 9th and 10th Streets, and is convenient to the F, G, and R subways. The gallery is open on Thursday and Friday, 4-7pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 7pm, or by appointment.