Uncommon Narratives: Karen nielsen-FRIED and Marybeth Rothman

Exhibition Dates: January 31, 2023 - February 25, 2023

Reception: thursday, february 2, 5pM - 8pm

Panel Discussion: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2PM - 4PM

The Painting Center is pleased to present the exhibition Uncommon Narratives featuring the work of Marybeth Rothman and Karen Nielsen-Fried in the Project Room Gallery, curated by Shazzi Thomas and Chase Cantwell. An Opening Reception is scheduled for Thursday February 2, 2023 at 5 to 8 pm.

The subtle, powerful works of Marybeth Rothman and Karen Nielsen-Fried present symbiotic yet independent explorations of identity, nature and the human condition. The artists uniquely, combine abstraction and realism with a focus on narrative, metaphor and symbolism. These painters examine the complexities of human emotion characterized by careful attention to detail with evocative, ambiguous visual narratives. Rothman and Nielsen-Fried utilize an emergent process style, with layers of iterations, both additive and subtractive. At times, their work presents us with unnamable imagery, but suggests storytelling that the viewer can satisfyingly and wordlessly attempt to understand.

"Every painting is like an expedition, starting from a point of not-knowing, staying open to impulses in the moment, and allowing for the unfolding and synthesis of unsorted and inchoate ideas that will become the form and content of the painting. I paint to find out what I need to put out into the world. This is the mysterious process and pleasure of painting for me.” - Karen Nielsen-Fried

Karen Nielsen-Fried was born in Binghamton, NY. She is a graduate of Pratt Institute (Master of Professional Studies in Art Therapy) and Binghamton University (BFA). She pursued postgraduate studies at The Institute for Expressive Analysis (NY, NY) and at The National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NY, NY). Her work has been exhibited widely in the NY metro area (among others: The Painting Center, NJ State Museum, SITE:Brooklyn, Equity Gallery, Denise Bibro Fine Art) as well as in Seattle, Philadelphia, Provincetown, and Chicago (where she is represented by Addington Gallery). She was awarded a residency at The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts. Karen's work is held in numerous private collections nationally, and in Denmark, Germany, and Ghana. She lives and maintains a studio in Montclair, New Jersey.

“I create fictional, visual biographies and abstract deconstructed narratives. This work is composed of subtle layers of pigmented beeswax monotypes, photographs and abstract drawings. The photographic element is a fusion of reclaimed and reimagined orphaned, vintage photographs, digital photographs and ephemera that I digitally alter, combine and repurpose. I develop a series of paintings by creating an imagined fellowship, geographic location or cultural bond. I celebrate the human response to identify the other” - Marybeth Rothman

Marybeth Rothman is a Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, Semifinalist in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022. She is known for her fictional biographies and abstract narrative, photo and pigmented beeswax combines. She has exhibited in galleries and museums nationally. Her work was featured in The Billboard Creative with an international group of artists that included Marilyn Minter, Laurie Simmons and Lawrence Weiner. Rothman exhibited in Ripped: The Allure of Collage at the Heckscher Museum of Art with Roy Lichtenstein, Miriam Shapiro, Joseph Cornell, among others. Her work can by be found in collections throughout the United States and abroad. Rothman was born in Massachusetts and earned a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Her home and studio are in New Jersey.