Lorraine Shemesh
American painter / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lorraine Shemesh is an American artist whose practice focuses on painting, drawing, and ceramics.[1][2][3] Since the early 1990s, she has created investigations of the human form that balance contemporary realism with an abstract expressionist concern for gesture, rhythm and pattern.[4][5][6] Her best-known series depict active swimmers in pools viewed from above and underwater or intertwined, costumed dancers set in ambiguous, compressed spaces.[7][8][9] In the 2000s, her work has increasingly moved towards abstraction, with figures dissolving into faithfully rendered optical phenomena or geometric patterning.[10][11][12] Describing these qualities, Art in America critic Jonathan Goodman wrote, "being true to nature enables Shemesh to record a dazzling array of painterly gestures, some of them squarely within the tradition of Abstract Expressionism … Her use of abstract effects in the service of representation is striking and makes her art complex."[1]
Lorraine Shemesh | |
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Born | Jersey City, New Jersey, United States |
Education | Tyler School of Art (MFA), Boston University (BFA) |
Known for | Painting, drawing, figurative art, ceramics |
Awards | National Academy of Design, Boston University, Rhode Island State Council for the Arts |
Website | Lorraine Shemesh |
Shemesh’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,[13] Bronx Museum of Art, National Academy of Design,[14] Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (ICA), Museum of the City of New York,[15] and Musée de Carouge (Switzerland).[10] Her work belongs to the public collections of the National Academy Museum, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Rhode Island School of Design Museum, among others.[16][14][17]