Works by Gina Werfel
Gina Werfel is an American abstract painter whose work uses vivid color, lyrical gesture, and complex compositional structures to explore harmonies within visual space. Raised on Long Island, she currently lives and works near Sacramento, California, where she is a Professor of Art at the University of California, Davis.
Education
Werfel received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Kirkland College (now part of Hamilton College), in Clinton, New York and post-graduated at the New York Studio School. She then earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University in New York. She is also the recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships and grants, and leads a distinguished career as a professor of art, a visiting university lecturer, and an artist in residence at important schools and institutions around the world.
Technique
Werfel works with a mixture of oils, acrylics and mixed media on canvas. Her background is in landscape painting, which helped her develop a keen eye for light, color relationships, and compositional harmony. As she transitioned into abstraction, she heightened her ability to use those sensibilities to convey emotional and atmospheric states within pictorial space. In her abstract paintings, she employs expressive, lyrical gestures that create bursts of movement and energy. Her color choices create a range of tones from the muted and serene to the vibrant and electric. In addition to traditional brushwork, she incorporates mediums like spray paint and stencils to build layered, complex, and expressive compositions.
Inspiration
Werfel has studied and taught all over the world. She has found inspiration in the variations between the pictorial landscapes to which she has been exposed: for example, the interplay between the hills and light of Northern California and the textures and colors of Brittany, France. She is interested in the way everyday experiences influence her paintings. She may become inspired early in the day by a spontaneous gesture then be guided later by the view from her studio. In the end, her compositions do not reference any one thing. They are examinations of the qualities of light, transparency and color in space.
Artist statement
“Like polyphony in music, Werfel’s work consists of textures of multiple independent “voices” or sources. She layers multiple elements to create painted universes; embedded vestiges of gestures suggest fragments of memories, glimpses inside the studio or outside her window. Werfel creates compositions that echo the spatial complexities of landscapes to which she had been drawn when painting outdoors - tumbling hills or underwater reflections. But now, fragments float in fluid, veiled spaces.”
Exhibitions
Werfel has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows throughout the United States, with recent solo exhibitions at the American University in Paris, France, and at the Prince Street Gallery in New York City.
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Korn Gallery, Drew University, Madison, NJ
2017
American University in Paris, Paris, France
Prince Street Gallery, East/West, New York, NY
Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Geographies, Falmouth, ME
2016
Mondavi Winery, Clearing, Margrit Mondavi Gallery, Napa, CA
2014
Shasta College Art Gallery, Redding, CA, Screens and Passages, with Hearne
Pardee
2013
Google Headquarters, Mountain View, CA
Adler and Co Gallery, San Francisco, He Said, She Said, with Hearne Pardee
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Stanilar Gallery, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
2012
Alex Bult Gallery, Sacramento, CA
Jane Deering Gallery, Polyphonics, Santa Barbara, CA
2011
California State University, Stanislaus, Persistence of Vision (catalogue &essay
by DeWitt Cheng)
2010
Adler& Co Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009
Prince Street Gallery, New York City
Adler& Co Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Mondavi Winery, Vineyard Gallery, Napa, CA
2007
Landscape, Observation and Abstraction, Wiegand Gallery, College of
Notre Dame de Nur, Belmont, CA (catalogue & essay by Mark van Proyen)
Prince Street Gallery, New York City
Monty Stabler Galleries, Birmingham, AL
B.Sakata Garo Gallery, Sacramento CA
Mondavi Winery, Vineyard Gallery, Napa, CA
Prince Street Gallery, New York City
2001
Prince Street Gallery, New York City
Monty Stabler Galleries, Birmingham, AL
1998
Prince Street Gallery, New York City
1995
Monty Stabler Galleries, Birmingham, AL
1994
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
Dupont Gallery, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
1993
Monty Stabler Galleries, Birmingham, AL
1992
Maier Museum of Art, Lynchburg, VA
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Congress Square Gallery, Portland, ME
1989
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Gallery 127, Portland, ME
1986
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
1985
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
1983
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
1982
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
University of Maine, Farmington, ME
1981
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME)
1980
Prince Street Gallery, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
2017
Shapeshifters: Superheavies NIAD Gallery, Oakland CA curated by Jessica
Snow; Catalog essay by Scott Hewicker
Alumni Exhibition, NY Studio School, curated by Stephen Harvey and Jennifer Samet
2016
Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley CA
Alumni Exhibition, NY Studio School, NYC, curated by Andrew Arnot
Winter Art Salon, Park City, Utah, curated by Lucy Buchanan
American Embassy, Ljubljana, group show (catalog)
2012
Tomorrow’s Legacies: Gifts Celebrating the Next 125 Years, Crocker
Museum, Sacramento, CA
Between the Quotes, Pence Gallery, Davis, CA
Flatlanders on the Slant Step, Nelson Gallery, Davis, CA
2009
Fourth of July Show, Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Artists in Residence, Yosemite Museum, Yosemite, CA
The Nature of Landscape, San Francisco Studio School Gallery,
San Francisco, CA
2008
Surface and Substance, San Francisco Studio School Gallery,
San Francisco, CA
Cool and Austere, Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Plein Air Abstraction, curated by Peter Frank, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
2006
From Postwar to Postmodernism, curated by Jerome Neuner, Noah Fischer, Garth Graeper,and Gareth James (catalogue) Columbia University,
Sacramento Valley Landscape Show, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA,
The Continuous Mark: 40 Years of the New York Studio School, curated by Jennifer Samet, New York Studio School,
Sacramento Valley Landscape Show”, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA,
See California Now, curated by Peter Frank with illustrated brochure, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA,
2003
Gone West, (catalogue&essay by Peter Frank) John Natsoulas Gallery
Pieces of the Puzzle, curated by Melissa Chandon, Woodland City Hall
2002
Art Afficionado, Birmingham Art Museum, Birmingham, AL,
3-person show, Washington Art Association, Washington, CT
Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
Personal Views: Four Painters and Landscape, Karl Drerup Fine Arts Gallery,Plymouth State College, Plymouth, NH
1995
Thirty Years of Drawing, New York Studio School, New York, NY
Site 250, Fairbanks, AK
Pennsylvania School of Design, Lancaster, PA, curated by Ruth Bernard
Contemporary Landscape, curated by Martin Mugar, Art Institute of Boston,
Landscape Revisited, Gaumann-Cicchino Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, FL, traveling to Philadelphia, Washington and New York City, 1989-91
Visions of the Southwest, Area Gallery, Portland, ME
1987
Inaugural Group Show Gallery 127, Portland, ME
Artists Who Teach in Maine, curated by Sarah Fawcett, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME
Faculty invitational, Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY
Landscape, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Juried Alumni Show, New York Studio School, New York, NY,
Painters Who Look at the Environment, curated by Tom Higgins, University of Maine, Farmington, ME
Juried Show, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME
Contemporary Gallery Artists, Barridoff Galleries, Portland ME
1982
Drawings from Nature, curated by Judith Sobol, Director
Joan Whitney Payson Gallery, Portland, ME
1981
Juried Show, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME
1980
New Drawings, Bette Stoler Gallery, New York, NY
Contemporary Gallery Artists, Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME
1978
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, juried by Irving Sandler
Art Fairs
2017
Art Apart Fair, Singapore (invited, but declined)
2014-2015
Art Silicon Valley/SF- 2014 (Adler&Co, UC Davis)
2010-2015
ArtMarket San Francisco (Adler& Co)
2009-2010
Los Angeles Art Show (Adler&Co)
2016
American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist, April 2016
2005-2007
International School of Art, Montecastello, Italy, Senior Artist in Residence
Yosemite National Park, Artist in Residence
Connecticut Arts Commission Grant in Painting
Artist–in-Residence, Auvillar, France,
1993
Yosemite National Park, Artist in Residence
1986
Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA (residency)
1984
Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy (fellowship)
1981
Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Sweet Briar, VA (residency)