Brett Baker: Forms of Face

Exhibition Dates: January 1 - January 25, 2008

reception: January 10, 6-9 PM

The Painting Center is pleased to present Forms of Face, an exhibition of recent small paintings by Brett Baker in the Project Room. The exhibition takes its title from the poet Clark Coolidge: “Rearranging all the things into forms of face / pressed into the air…” Each work the sum of several years of slow process - the paintings physically address the viewer, asserting themselves in real, rather than fictive space.

About his work Baker writes: “Above all I seek a separate, poetic whole that faces the viewer with presence and clarity – alive in the insistent, evident humanity of its construction.”

Brett Baker lives and works in New York City and Worcester, NY. His work has won numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting (2002) and a Juror’s Prize from the eminent art historian and painter Andrew Forge (1999). He earned a BA in Fine Arts from the College of William and Mary, a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Painting from Brandeis University and an MFA in Painting (1999) from Boston University. From 1999-2001 he was Visiting Lecturer of Drawing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He has exhibited work in group shows nationally, including Sideshow Gallery (Brooklyn), The Painting Center (NY), Sherman Gallery (Boston), New Bedford Art Museum (MA), Erector Square Gallery (CT), and Bowery Gallery (NY).

Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Ossia Space in Chicago, IL, a collaborative installation with Ensemble dal niente at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, IL, and a solo exhibition at St. Mary’s College in Maryland. In 2008 – 2009 his work will be part of a 3 person exhibition entitled “Placing Color” that will travel to: Bristol Community College (MA), St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Boston University, The Painting Center, and Winona State University (MN). Concurrent with Forms of Face, two large works are on view at 150 East 42nd Street (at Lexington Ave.) sponsored by Hiro Real Estate Co., and curated by Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts through May 2008. For more information visit www.brettbakerpaintings.com