Art

Item Description

Angela Berkson, re: target cross 3, acrylic on canvas, 24x24

Since 1994, the target shape has come and gone in my paintings. It all started when a friend gave me some leftover paper targets she had used for shooting practice and I was captivated by the visual impact of the concentric circles. I started incorporating these commercial paper targets in my paintings, collage-style, applying layers of paint/wax over them to reveal and conceal different aspects of the concentric circles and integrating other shapes. After a while the target left my work for many years, but re-appeared again in 2010 when some petal shapes I had been painting morphed into concentric circles. The target was back. But these targets were different because I was drawing the circles, not a machine. These new targets inspired intersecting lines to break up and flatten the circles, and soon I had cross-shapes intersecting the targets.

The cross is another recurring shape in my work. I think about how artists have used images of concentric circles, crosses and other universal shapes throughout art history, and here I am repeating them. I consider the visual power of these universal symbols and how what I’m doing is like a cover of other artists’ images, including my own. I have developed many different recurring shapes in my work that have evolved over time, repeating and returning like my own visual language. I have painted targets and cross shapes before, but this target with a cross behind it is somehow different, re-made, re-played, re-covered.

Photo courtesy of Little Shot Photography

Item Special Note

Angela Berkson is an abstract visual artist who was raised in New Mexico and attended Otis College of Art and Design in LA. After her sophomore year, Angela moved to NYC to study with noted encaustic painter Rachel Friedberg, and it was during this apprenticeship that Angela fell in love with the encaustic (beeswax-based) medium. She later moved to Austin, Texas and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas. Angela divides her professional studio practice between two primary painting mediums: encaustic and her (sometimes) large-scale acrylic-based works. Her work is represented locally by Exhibit 208.