Elizabeth Josephson at Sideshow Gallery

Sideshow Gallery, at 319 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Elizabeth Josephson from November 18th through January 8th.

Following her 2002 show of portraits at Sideshow, the current exhibition includes works from two distinct, but related bodies of work that have occupied the artist for the past four years.

Josephson has extended the tradition of portrait painting into a fresh and highly contemporary arena. Having painted from models as diverse as Drag Queen Performers to figures from the contemporary music and art worlds, Josephson catches the spiritual essence of her subjects, as well as investing the paintings with a powerful poetry and visual punch that is all her own.  In addition to the portraits, Josephson paints highly charged works derived from her practice as a Buddhist, as well as other imagined figures.

Both the depiction and the actual fact of space are crucial to Josephson’s work. She creates subtle, sensuous layers of encaustic and oil paint, as well as collaging found elements, such as sheets from Chinese calligraphy workbooks, to give her paintings a solid sense of real, yet highly poetic space.

From the solidity of the physical support, the geometry of the grid, the fluidity of paint and the drama of her gesture, the complexity of Josephson’s paintings are infused with a sense of simplicity and directness that is the manifestation of an intellectual and emotional paradox. It is a paradox that Josephson — in the context of post-modernism’s reinvigoration of the figure — investigates in this new and powaerful body of work, with conviction and ease.

The paintings are inclusive and contain humor, drama, and a strong sense of her spiritual connection to the traditions of Buddhism and psychoanalysis. The paintings embrace the notion of the decorative in a powerfully committed, non-ironic, and direct manner.

The use of scale is central to her works, which range in this exhibition from 24” x 36” to much larger works. Whatever their size, however, Josephson’s paintings always embrace the viewer with an open invitation to enter their excitingly activated and grand space.

Josephson has been exhibiting in the New York area for over twenty years. This is her second one-person exhibition at Sideshow.  The opening of the exhibit will be on Saturday, November 18, from 6 to 9.

For More Information Contact:
Richard Timperio
Sideshow Gallery
email: sideshowgallery@earthlink.com
Fax/Tel 718-486-8180
www.sideshowgallery.com