Betty Merken

Intervals 01-14-18

Work Details

Intervals 01-14-18

oil monotype

32 X 48

Inventory ID: # 3349

About Betty Merken

Betty Merken is an American painter and printmaker. Her work can be found in several galleries and numerous private and public collections in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the de Young Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor), the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon.

Merken has been honored with fellowships from the Pinea-Linea de Costa Foundation, in Rota, Spain, the BAU Institute in Otranto, Italy and New York and the Civita/Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy. She is the co-author, with Stefan Merken, of Wall Art, Megamurals and Supergraphics (Philadelphia: Running Press, 1987).

ARTIST STATEMENT
My work interfaces along a continuum of painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Color and materiality are paramount. Inspired by observations of the manner in which light affects color with its passing movement and changes I am fascinated by the power of color to evoke emotion and to encourage contemplation, allowing the viewer to become the subject of the work.

In my daily studio practice I attempt to strike a balance between painterly guts and the pared down elegance of formalism. The inherent tension between these two elements is filled with mystery and metaphor, challenging me to create works which have a sense of inevitability about them and which reveal a sense of oneness with the viewer.

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