Long Series #1396.

#1396

Have you met…Claudia Sperry?

Claudia Sperry, Untitled, 2010, Oil on Wood, 56″ x 48″

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Claudia Sperry.

Untitled, 2010, Oil on Canvas, 50″ x 40″

“Claudia Sperry lives and works in Northampton Massachusetts. She earned an MFA in Painting from Hunter College in New York City and a BA in Art History from Fairfield University. Her art education started at the Art Students League in New York in 1971, where she concentrated on painting and drawing from the model. She is a recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Grant and is represented by Fresh Paint in Los Angeles, CA. Her work is included in the corporate collection of Nordstrom, J.Crew and The MGM Grand in Las Vegas to name just a few. Locally she has been included in group and one person exhibitions at The Oxbow Gallery, The Hampden Gallery Incubator Project Space, U. Mass., Amherst, The Herter Art Gallery, U.Mass., Amherst, Zea Mays Printmaking Gallery and Wunderarts. Her most recent teaching position was at Holyoke Community College. Sperry also enjoys making artist books and has two in the collection of The Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College.”

The Gouache Web, July 2013

“The works of Claudia Sperry communicate a depth of meaning beyond mere appearance,” wrote David Gibson, an independent New York curator and arts writer. “They speak of the struggle to achieve meaningful form, a role that only the artist is prepared to fulfill. Sperry has developed an aesthetic that combines the conscious and unconscious qualities of painterly expression, giving each painting a memory of its own, and a dynamic borrowed from her precursors, the alchemists”
Ambiguity is her greatest tool. She speaks not to the viewer, but to the painting, asking it questions which it refuses to answer. The truth is that meaning follows beauty, the rest is silence. . Place one color next to another, read the signs, build a form that accrues in meaning as it adds to an oeuvre”

The promise of painting, especially abstract painting, has to do with its ability to take us into various modes of the world. Each painter attempts to delineate a specific perspective on how matter is organized, how space is allotted, how color and light, depth and viscosity work to establish standards for understanding how the universe affects us. Claudia Sperry achieves a level of mature investigation into such matters. As Gibson says, “It’s not about analysis, her work, but about feeling our way through an experience.”

Untitled, 2008, Acrylic on Wood, 24″ x 24″

Other material relating to Claudia Sperry.

Artist Website: Claudia Sperry.

Painting Notes: Claudia Sperry.

Youtube: Claudia Sperry.

ArtSlant: Claudia Sperry.

Lisa Pressman Art Blog: Claudia Sperry.

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