KIRSTEN EVERBERG

With a new body of work that is based primarily on the genre and history of Dutch Golden Age still life paintings Everberg replaces the traditional elements with plant and animal species simultaneously listed as extinct or endangered, native and non-native. Symbolic not just as demonstrations but for their ability to transcend deceptively “earthy splendors”, these paintings have the capacity to create meaning in the larger moment we find ourselves in while being contained primarily in architectural settings. Everberg’s attention to detail is highlighted by the shifting perspective that is at the same time unstable and precise, and the scale is amplified, elevating the objects and creatures to sometimes imposing monumentality, refusing to be unseen or marginalized.

Using a unique combination of oil and enamel paint, Everberg’s works hover between representation and pure paint. There is always a tension here between the convincing depiction of space and the abstract skeins of color that dance across the canvas. What appears to be the exterior of a house or a dense jungle from far away is reconfigured into glossy pools of paint close-up. Everberg’s mastery of her medium is demonstrated by how deftly she walks this line. Narrative and image; truth and fiction; surface and what lies beneath – are all woven together in her captivating works.

Kirsten Everberg lives and works in Los Angeles. She has had solo exhibitions at the Pomona College Museum of Art, CA, Le Consortium, Dijon, France; and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ. She has been included in exhibitions at several international institutions including FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and Musée des beaux-arts, Nancy, France.