440 Gallery is proud to present Heaven And Earth by multi-faceted artist Fred Bendheim. The exhibition will consist of ten of the artist’s new works, in his fourth solo show at 440 Gallery.
Heaven And Earth focuses on Bendheim’s trademark Shapings — shaped, non-rectangular paintings on wood and PVC board, a format that he has used for over ten years. This unconventional format allows the artist a freedom of expression, while he maintains a controlled compositional method in each of the individual works.
Heaven And Earth also includes colorful cut paper works that Bendheim made during a 2018 residency while at a Costa Rican artists’ residency. These works have a playful exuberance while presenting philosophical speculations on nature, work/play and of being alive in the 21st Century.
Heaven And Earth refers to the artist’s interest in Chinese philosophies that hold this dual world-view. The abstract realm of heaven is a world of light, grand in scale. The everyday realm here on earth is one of survival, work and of attention to details. For Bendheim, work and play are heaven on earth; he is endlessly fascinated with contrast and juxtaposition, intersectionality and separateness.
Heaven And Earth reflects this fascination. Elements of bright color contrasting deep blues and purples. Shaped paintings with suns glowing out of negative spaces. Coiling shapes that are restraint? embrace? pathway? For Bendheim, these separate definitions are part of a totality.
“I like using the open-ended format of shaped, non-rectangular works. It allows me a freedom from the formula of rectangles, and it allows the walls to become part of piece, to have a conversation in space with the shapes and colors I have chosen.”
Fred Bendheim has had numerous one-person shows and his works are in collections world-wide including: The Museum of Arts & Design, NY; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Montclair Art Museum, The National Gallery of Costa Rica; The Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice, Italy; The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, The Plotkin Museum, The Brooklyn Public Library, NY; Denise Bibro Fine Art, NY; Jason McCoy Gallery, Bradley International Airport, Los Angeles, CA; The Mayo Center for Humanities, Scottsdale, AZ. His commissions include fountain-sculptures for Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and paintings for the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, among others. His past art has taken the form of large room-sized installations, outdoor billboards with children’s art, sculptures, and fountains made with many materials, as well as mural-sized drawings. He has written articles about art for the British journal The Lancet, and he is on the faculty at the Art Students League and The College of Mt. Saint Vincent in New York City.
Fred Bendheim’s artist’s talk on March 3rd will expand on his vision and his working process: pacing, looking, drawing, dried fruit, looking again, painting maquettes, gelato, looking once more, then transforming the compositions to the more sculptural wood or PVC board.
440 Gallery
440 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215
718.499.3844 [email protected]
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