Contemporary Art Gallery 

Gallery Statement

 

It is with great pleasure that we present the first solo exhibition of Anna Berghuis, showcasing a mix of new and older works. We have had the privilege of working with Anna since 2021, and are honored to support her growth and evolution as an artist.

 

Anna Berghuis is known for her thoughtfulness and fearless approach to painting figurations, and this exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to experience the depth of her work. The pieces on display reflect Anna’s prodigious talent and her commitment to her art practice, offering a glimpse into the creative process of this remarkable artist.

 

Anna recently completed her residency at Vermont Studio Center, and is now in residency at Long Meadow Art Residency in the Berkshires. We are eager to see how her time spent at these residencies will impact her work and are confident that this exhibition will be a testament to her exceptional artistry.

 

This solo gallery exhibition is Anna Berghuis’s first with our gallery. Berghuis graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Art History and Studio Art, and she currently lives and practices in New York City.

 

LaiSun Keane

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Artist Statement

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My paintings confront the relationship between our digital lives and our physical bodies. The work reckons with authenticity and performance of personality in a time of prolific image making and sharing online. The lines between the real and unreal at times become blurred when the internet plays a role in how we form our opinions of ourselves and of each other.

 

Distortion and the unreal play a large role in my narrative paintings. My figures are often unruly, awkward, and uncontainable. They carry their weight in their eyes, and their heads are larger than their torsos. They barely fit into the constraints of canvas, often lingering inches from the edge. Hands and eyes are blown out of proportion to the point of becoming clumsy and grotesque. I misuse proportion to draw attention to the unreal and to spotlight the psychological.

 

My artistic practice is heavily influenced by modern society and art history alike. My paintings are a contemporary ode to cubism, conflating motion and the still image with multiple viewpoints and timelines on the same plane. Instead of tackling motion from one source, like Picasso and Braque did, my references stem from images I am experiencing in everyday life, found online imagery, and the imagined. These ideas are at the root of my monstrous and sometimes grotesque painting language.

 

A parallel theme to performance of personality on the internet is the idea of the perceiver and the perceived. At times, the viewer is acknowledged as an active participant in the painting, such as in “Pasta Eaters II” where a fork-wielding hand is seen from the viewer's perspective. Sometimes the perceiver is personified negative space, or a ghostly anti-shadow, such as in “The Skater (figure as flight).”

 

My paintings use techniques such as distortion, surrealism, and collage to attempt to discern and magnify the dichotomy between authenticity and performance of personality on the internet when we all play the role of the consumer and the consumed.

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Anna Berghuis