Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Judith Berry
Collapsing Wall and Sticks, Contemporary Oil on Wood Panel, 2010+

2024

$1,500
£1,134.09
€1,323.41
CA$2,134.43
A$2,165.30
CHF 1,236.27
MX$26,218.39
NOK 14,553.93
SEK 14,505.62
DKK 9,896.04

About the Item

Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lush, painterly oils are meditations on the colour green—sap green, olive green, vert tendre—bathed in the warm light of the golden hour. These works represent the concretization of nature, an evolution which contains traces of past forms incarnating as if they are still in transition. The figures in these portraits have a tenuous hold on reality. There is an oneiric energy here, a sense that the animal and human forms are mid manifestation and could easily change back into abstractions or plant life. Most remarkable about Berry’s new body of work is the equine (re)emergence. Horses have been a part of human history for millennia, they represent control and freedom, power and its lack. They’ve been used for transportation, war, entertainment, as well as deeply appreciated for their beauty; they are powerful creatures able to run at incredible speeds, yet as prey, they are easily spooked. In Portrait with Horse and Pumpkin, a figure offers a bucket of water containing the reflection of a pumpkin to a masked horse. Guardians shows two horses, sentinels or oracles, standing by a liminal frontier. Their coats and hoods give a dual impression of protection and restriction. In The World Upside Town Triptych a horse is on its back in a posture of joy, vulnerability, or defeat. Long, multicoloured bead-like strands of colour that often appeared in Berry’s past paintings slither across the canvas. The coats of the horses are dotted with tiny shrubbery, giving the sense that the animal itself is a landscape. Landscape Hood reveals a being whose red core is obscured by curtain-like hair overgrown with neat rows of vegetation. This figure could be a priest of a mushroom cult in some otherworldly dimension. In Double Portrait with Blocks two figures are cut through with red, the red interiors in many of these works call to mind the hidden pulse of blood within bodies. Attached to their heads are blocks which could represent thoughts or energy blockages. Fissure conjures a landscape that is destroyed even as it is imagined. Berry has a notable interest in fusing and deconstructing forms, proven by her longstanding investigation into the dynamic between abstraction and figuration. Her surreal symbolic language that is emerging now is poetic and evocative, an analysis of the way forms come into being and of the interconnectedness of life. In Portrait, identities are obscured, but the energies and structures underlying things is revealed. There is a quiet strangeness in these paintings, along with an eerie sense of proximity to the primordial soup of creation. The paintings in Portrait aren’t portraits in any kind of traditional sense; there are no identities, there are no individual personalities being intimated. Yet they are figurations of beings all the same, perhaps catalogued as an artist-anthropologist might document their discoveries in some foreign land. Judith Berry was born in London, Ontario and grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax and spent one year in the Studio Program at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. She has had solo exhibitions across Canada in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. Judith has also shown in numerous group exhibitions including exhibitions at the Musée du Québec and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. She has received funding from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council. Her work is in various collections including: the Musee du Québec, the City of Ottawa, the City of Montreal, the Royal Bank, and the Art Bank of the Canada Council. She has served as a jury member for the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the City of Ottawa.
  • Creator:
    Judith Berry (1961, Canadian)
  • Creation Year:
    2024
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Montreal, CA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU47616250642

More From This Seller

View All
Double Portrait with Sticks, Contemporary Oil on Wood Panel, 2010-

Double Portrait with Sticks, Contemporary Oil on Wood Panel, 2010-

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lu...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Stick Excursion Oil Painting on Wood Panel, Abstract, 2010s, Unframed

Stick Excursion Oil Painting on Wood Panel, Abstract, 2010s, Unframed

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

I think of my paintings primarily as landscapes. Recently, these landscapes appear to be more manufactured than organic. At first glance the subjects seem to be monumental forms such...

Category

2010s Abstract Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Double Portrait with Sticks: Contemporary Painting on Wood Panel

Double Portrait with Sticks: Contemporary Painting on Wood Panel

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

The artist thinks of their paintings primarily as landscapes. Lately, these landscapes have taken on a more manufactured feel rather than organic. At first glance, the subjects may a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wood Panel

Tangled Lines Oil Painting on Wood Panel, Contemporary, 2010-Now

Tangled Lines Oil Painting on Wood Panel, Contemporary, 2010-Now

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lu...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Finding a Way Forward, Contemporary Oil Painting on Wood Panel, 2010+

Finding a Way Forward, Contemporary Oil Painting on Wood Panel, 2010+

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Portrait is a result of transformations in Judith Berry’s painting practice from singular landscapes into abstracted forms, still lives, and now, into human and animal life. These lu...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Finding a Way Forward Painting, Contemporary, Wood Panel, 2010- 24x36"

Finding a Way Forward Painting, Contemporary, Wood Panel, 2010- 24x36"

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

The artist thinks of their paintings primarily as landscapes. Lately, these landscapes have taken on a more manufactured feel rather than organic. At first glance, the subjects may a...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Wood Panel

You May Also Like

Deeper Into The Sticks, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Deeper Into The Sticks, Painting, Oil on Canvas

By John Dowling

Located in Yardley, PA

Oil and pencil on canvas :: Painting :: Contemporary :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the artist :: Ready to Hang: Yes :: Signed: Yes :: Sig...

Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Branches 1/2: Oil Painting on Linen, Contemporary, Unframed, 2010+

Branches 1/2: Oil Painting on Linen, Contemporary, Unframed, 2010+

By Felix Campean

Located in BARCELONA, ES

It is a work that celebrates the vitality and complexity of nature. The branches, protagonists of the composition, extend in all directions, symbolizing growth and the expansion of l...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Ky Anderson "Felled" Acrylic and Oil on Canvas

Ky Anderson "Felled" Acrylic and Oil on Canvas

By Ky Anderson

Located in New York, NY

Of her recent work, Ky Anderson states, "After taking a couple of months off from painting, I returned to the studio with a sense of urgency and dove in without a preconceived concep...

Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Canvas

Room Divider, Large Abstract Oil and Acrylic Painting by Haavard Homstvedt

Room Divider, Large Abstract Oil and Acrylic Painting by Haavard Homstvedt

By Haavard Homstvedt

Located in Long Island City, NY

A mixed media work by Haavard Homstvedt from 2006. An abstract painting of mother and child figures in a surrealist interior setting. Artist: Haavard Homstvedt Title: Room Divider ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Interior Paintings

Materials

Linen, Wood, Oil, Acrylic

Branches 2/2: Oil Painting on Linen, Contemporary, Unframed, 2010+

Branches 2/2: Oil Painting on Linen, Contemporary, Unframed, 2010+

By Felix Campean

Located in BARCELONA, ES

It is a work that explores nature through a subtle play of shapes and colors. The branches, intertwined and extensive, symbolize the interconnection and latent force of nature. It in...

Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

346 Emerging From Below, Painting, Oil on Canvas

346 Emerging From Below, Painting, Oil on Canvas

By Anne B Schwartz

Located in Yardley, PA

Colorful painting with interesting shapes. Has a light feel and interesting textures. :: Painting :: Contemporary :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity si...

Category

2010s Contemporary Paintings

Materials

Oil