Judith Simonian At Nightingale Gallery

Sara Nightingale Gallery at 26 Main Street, Sag Harbor, presents the work of artist Judith Simonian in a show entitled “Caught in The Act of Swimming,” on view now through September 10.

Throughout a career spanning over 45 years, Simonian has periodically returned to paintings about fish and water. Inspired by the seduction of the subject matter and the ability it affords to “mash up” images, Simonian says, “The pleasure of painting water and fish provides gestural opportunities to dance on the two dimensional surface of a painting.”

But she hesitates to remain in a pleasure zone for too long. It is just as important that she provide an exit route into another dimension, in order to make connections that aren’t immediately obvious to the viewer, nor to the artist herself. Using a periscope as a travel device, she journeys through, above and around imagined landscapes and seascapes, inviting the viewer to follow until they end up somewhere else.

Simonian compares the process to a “Proustian sensation of observing postcards dropped on a table, conjuring moments of meaning and time that depend upon one’s personal triggers.” Her use of disparate imagery allows for multiple narratives within each work.

Simonian lives and works in New York City, where she teaches at Cooper Union. Simonian has exhibited broadly in museums and galleries across the United States and in Europe. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and the Fresno Museum of Art, among other museums and corporate collections.

For more images and info email sara@saranightingale.com.