Jeff Briggs

I think about my paintings as sound images. Usually rooted at some point in the landscape, the paintings gradually take on a resonance as I work on them that feels like sound. My interest lies in the auditory landscape and the way a painting may represent sound without being literal. Synaesthetic language surrounds us. Everyday descriptions of music, color, taste are constantly borrowing from one another to refine descriptions of whatever particular sensation is being examined. Often times prosaic, like describing colors as loud or muted; white noise or pink noise, to something less commonplace, like Newton's division of the spectrum into seven colors to match western modal scales. I think these metaphors are deeper than language. I think there is something inherent in the wiring of our brains and the language reflects a deeper physical understanding of experience. My paintings explore the way color and repetitive marks can imply sound. The repetition creates visual noise where the figure and ground merge. The resulting pulse as the individual marks continually reconfigure themselves in relation to one another creates the feel of a vibration. This oscillation gives way to a resonant hum that can be likened to the background microwave radiation in the galaxy or the timbre of an instrument.

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EDUCATION
2005 Massachusetts College of Art. Boston. MFA Painting
2000 SUNY Purchase. Purchase, NY. BFA Printmaking and Painting

EXHIBITIONS

2013 Brick Walk Fine Art, West Hartford CT. Selected Works. Group Exhibition.

2012 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY. Four Painters

2012 Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA. National Prize Show

Juried by Clara Kim Senior Curator, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MA

2012 Garvey Rita, AD 20/21 Boston, MA

2012 Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie NY. New Directions. Group Exhibition.

Juried by Susan Cross, Curator, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA

2011 Art Institute Gallery, 20^th National Juried Exhibition, Salisbury MD.

Juried by Margaret Winslow, Curator, Delaware Art Museum

2011 FSU Museum of Fine Arts, 26^th Tallahassee International. Catalog.

2011 Monmouth Museum, Monmouth NJ. 32nd Annual Juried Exhibition

2010 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY (May 29-July4)

2010 Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit NJ. 24th International Juried Show. Group Exhibition. Juried by Susan Kismaric, Curator, MOMA

2010 George Segal Gallery, Montclair State University, NJ. New Connections 6. Group Exhibition. Juried by Jerelle Krauss, New York Times

2009 Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie NY. New Directions. Group Exhibition. Juried by Joan Young, Associate Curator, Guggenheim

2009 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY. Sacred Ground.

2008 Gallery X, New Bedford, MA. New Work. Juried Group Exhibition.

2005 The Colony Group, Boston MA. Solo Exhibition.

2005 Bakalar Gallery, MassArt, Boston MA. MFA Thesis Show.

2004 Doran Gallery, MassArt, Boston MA. Nature Rocks. w/ Eric Saline.

2004 Haddad Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington MA. Group Exhibition.

2004 Paine Gallery, MassArt, Boston MA. Midway Show. Group Exhibition of first year MFA candidates

2003 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY. Botanica. Group Exhibiion

2001 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY. Group Exhibition

1998 Mandrake Belle Gallery, Millerton NY. 4 person show.

AWARDS and PUBLICATIONS

2005 George Nick Prize

2001 David Brickam, “Stamen Power” Metroland, April 2003