Jill Moser: Borrowed Light

Edward Cella Art & Architecture is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of paintings on paper by New York based artist Jill Moser. In works where gestures are imbued with meaning and protest, Moser’s distinctive touch is revealed in emotionally charged abstractions.

In the emergent psychology of her expressive line, Moser forms a language and record of activity that is emotive and bodily: a convergence of mark-making that reveals her performative process. The gestural line in her works is both expression and description, the beginning of a dialogue not just between figure and ground, but one in which the ground has a dimensional space that rivals that of the overlaid graphic figure.

Most striking in this new work is Moser’s vibrant use of color, the light of this color borrowed from the history of painting from Pontormo to Warhol as well as the landscapes she has traveled in from Iceland to the East End of Long Island, NY. Borrowed Light for her, defined as “reflected light or the light entering a darkened space”, is a provocation where nascent, almost animated figures hold a suggestion of pose, character, and voice. There is a searching quality to these drawings that suggest that uncertainty can be auspicious in ways that decisiveness closes off, and this has been characteristic of Moser’s pursuits that continues to propel her explorations forward.

ABOUT JILL MOSER

Jill Moser lives and works in New York City. Since 1980s she has exhibited her work in galleries and museums throughout the United States and Europe. Solo exhibitions include Lennon, Weinberg, New York, NY; Dubner Moderne, Switzerland; Wade Wilson, Houston, TX; and the Lincoln Center, New York, NY. Group exhibitions include Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Museum of American Art; Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; and the Drawing Center, New York, NY. Her paintings, drawings and prints are included in prominent museum and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The National Gallery of Art, The National Library of France, Yale University Art Museum and The Fogg Art Museum. She has taught at various universities including Princeton University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

For thirty years, Moser’s work has been an exploration between painting, writing, and the animated image. During the past fifteen years, she has realized a wide range of collaborative projects with other artists including poets Charles Bernstein and Major Jackson and numerous print editions with Landfall Press, Brand X, Burnet Editions, Jungle Press, Wingate Studio and Collaborative Art Editions.