STATEMENT

I usually start a drawing or painting with text or geometry, grids especially, cerebral activities to bring my thoughts into focus.     In some works, the text is journal entries and poems that I have written in Yiddish or both English and Yiddish, with lines overlaying previous lines, or the shape of the letters extended, until they cross and flow onto others, forming new non-verbal ideas and abstract narratives.   The content vanishes into form.   These drawings reflect my primary body of work, which is sculpture, constructions, and installations that use lines in space to convey form.  

In other works, I soften or cover the text or geometry, usually in oil pastel, and the residual blur becomes a guideline from which to move forward.   When it gets too soft and luscious, I impose either more text or a straight line, or a triangle, and then that too has to be interrupted.   Back and forth, the cerebral and the sensual, until there is a balance, or some sort of truce.

Often all that remains visible is a stack of simple forms.   They convey a feeling of being on the edge, but stable at the same time, another balancing act.   Yiddish text is buried in the objects, archeological, as it were, with occasional visible traces.  

 

Francine Perlman

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Francine Perlman 520 W. 123rd St. New York, NY 10027 212-662-2018 fperlman@earthlink.net Solo Exhibitions
2007	Abstract Works on Paper", Society for the Advancement of Judaism, NYC
2005	"Shelter: Installations by Francine Perlman", The Fine Arts Gallery, Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY
2002	“House: ב׳ת”, City College, the Great Hall, NY
2000	“Rooms”, construction, Ceres Gallery, NY
1999	“Works on Paper”, Fox & Fowle, Architects, NY
1998	“Soft Grids”, construction, Ceres Gallery, NY; “Open Shelter”, construction, Eldridge Street Synagogue, NY
1996	“Constructions in Sylvia Blue and Other Colors”, Ceres Gallery, NY
1995	“Small Works on Paper”, T. Schreiber Theater Gallery, NY
1994	“Elements of the Natural World”, Invitational installation, Ceres Gallery, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2005	CCNY Alumni Biennial, City College, NY
2004	Bonn Biennale, "Live From New York" and "Globalia", FrauenMuseum, Bonn, Germany;
2003	Aaron Davis Hall, Alumni Exhibition, City College, NY
2002	Dialogues”, Ceres Gallery, New York City
1999	Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY; Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY; Kingsborough Community College, New York City
1998	Kunstlerforum, Bonn, Germany; National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC
1997	Ceres Gallery, New York City; A.I.R. Invitational, New York City
1996	Albright-Knox Museum, Members’ Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Eastern Regional WCA Exhibition, Cambridge, MA
1995	State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, NY; Ceres Gallery, NYC
1992	“Women: Diversity & Vision”, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
1989-1992	“Divine Line”, traveling exhibit, Arizona Council of the Arts
1988	Boston Women Artists: WCA Invitational, A.I.R. Gallery, NYC
1987	Seven Artists from the Distillery", Boston City Hall
1985	Seven Sisters Gallery, Black Mountain, NC
Awards and Commissions
2004	Cork Gallery, City College Art Alumni Exhibition, Honorable Mention
2002	Alumni Association of City College, Thesis presentation award, CUNY
2001	Therese McCabe Ralston Connor Fund, City College, CUNY
2000	American Association of University Women, Career Development Grant
1998	Residency, Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Ithaca, NY
1992	Stage set, "Paul Bowles", Merkin Hall, NY
Collections
	Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany Columbia University, NYC, department of Biochemistry Catalog 18 Jewish Women Artists in the libraries of the Brooklyn Museum, NYC;
		The Jewish Museum, NYC; The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC; Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
Bibliography and Publications
	Catalog: Diversity & Tradition, CCNY Alumni Biennial, 2005 Christina zu Hecklenburg, "Trummer des Alltags", General Anzeiger, Bonn, July 5, 2004 Catalog: Bonn Biennale 2004, Bonn, Germany, "Live From New York", Frauenmuseum Paul Werner, "Review: Inner Space, Francine Perlman", WOID #XI-2, March 7, 2004 Paul Werner, “Review: Francine Perlman”, WOID #VII-44, June 10, 2002 Catalog: 18 Jewish Women Artists, B’nai B’rith Museum, Washington, DC, 1998 Ken Oda, “Jews, Women & Art”, Art News, Washington, DC, March 1998 “State of the Art”, The Ithaca Journal, Oct 19, 1995 Catalog: “Women: Diversity & Vision”, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, S.I., NY 1992
Education
	MFA City College, NYC 2002 BA Cornell University, Ithaca NY 1967

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