HALSEY MCKAY GALLERY

HALSEY MCKAY is thrilled to present, Reflections on the Swamps of New Jersey, an exhibition of new paintings by Timothy Bergstrom.

For his third solo exhibition with the gallery Bergstrom presents an entirely new body of work that further extrapolates his unique pursuit into the limits of how paint can be manipulated. Where his previous Glound paintings stretched, pushed and pulled out from the canvas’ plane in a rejection of flatness, we now see the artist’s emphasis shift to compression. The initial application of paint is still very much the same, as he pipes thin lines of acrylic out of bags, and disturbs the surface with brushes and liquid pours. These thick peaks are then spread down and out, as wet paint is flattened, pressed, smudged and smushed under non-stick papers and plastics. These sheets are later removed once the paint has cured. The dried colors appear like marble, but the flat surface of the trappings leaves a cast-like appearance. Layer upon layer is built up over time, as Bergstrom removes paint with a razor blade, to reveal what’s underneath, then brushes and pours again. All of these developed techniques act in unison to obscure and abstract images as much or as little as he pleases.

Timothy Bergstrom received his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Recent solo exhibitions have been with Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY; and Roberto Paradise Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bergstrom’s work has been included in the exhibitions: Xtraction, The Hole, NY, NY; This One’s Optimistic: Pincusion, The New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT; Cult of Color, Circuit 12, Dallas, TX; Material Matters, Indiana State University, IN, as well as in group shows at Monya Rowe Gallery, NY, NY; The Suburban, Oak Park, IL; Nudashank, Baltimore, MD; devening projects + editions, Chicago, IL and Southfirst, Brooklyn, NY. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.