Jenny Berry

Artist Statement

I've heard it said that art is the mirror of a culture. That sentence often grounds me and helps me make sense out of what I do.

We as artists take in information all around us and then filter it through our own set of fun house mirrors and what comes out we call art. For me, Warhol's paintings, his Cambell's Soup can or Brillo box are perfect examples.

In a way they're like petroglyphs for some future society to decode. In essence —We were a society that worshiped products and celebrities the way the good people of the renaissance revered their saints and martyrs— Not pretty but pretty accurate if you think about it.

My background as an advertising art director probably has a lot to do with the cynicism and irony in my work. But the one conscious, necessary component of the process for me is the struggle between me and the painting. It's a love/hate relationship. I hate the endless battle but it's necessary for me to fight with it to develop a relationship with it.

I seem to always be struggling with either the media itself or with an idea and sometimes I seem to almost intentionally massacre a section of the canvas just so I have to battle with it to regain some perceived sense of control. And in the process destroy another area. And then it starts all over again... until it's done. And this I've noticed could be a metaphor for my entire life.

:: BIO | CV ::

• My earliest memories are of drawing, usually people, faces and figures were always my favorite.

• I first received mainstream recognition for my art in high school student and was featured in American Artist.

• I was offered an art merit scholarship and started my BFA at Eastern Michigan University at age 15, a high school sophomore and I went on to receive my BFA

• 1989 attended Portfolio Center in Atlanta (a top-ranked creative ad/design school) for a couple more years

• 1993-2003 Advertising agency art director/copywriter for many famous agencies and corporate clients. Making funny tv spots with Joe Montana and Ads with Michael Jordan was fun but over-all the corporate world was just not my thing.

• In 2003 I quit 'the business' and started painting again. I sold my first painting in an eBay auction and have been painting full time ever since.

• My art sales via online venues, art fairs and gallery showings rose to over six figures in the first two years, topping my corporate creative director salary. Something I never thought would happen. I was thankful I had that 'useless' art degree to fall back on when the corporate thing didn't work out :)

• By 2005 my art could be found in private and corporate collections all over the world.

• In 2006, Neiman Marcus purchased seven of my large-scale abstract paintings for their corporate collection housed at their Dallas headquarters.

• In 2007, I had a painting in a featured home in Architectural Digest.

• In 2008, I signed an exclusivity agreement with a major gallery quadrupling prices on some of my paintings overnight.

• In 2009, my art was featured in the set design of both Olive Garden & Papa John's Pizza.

• In 2010, paintings were bought by Harvard University, an HGTV designer, a famous NFL athlete and my work was added to many more corporate and private collections around the world as well.

• So far in 2011, my artwork has been used in a Saturday Night Live skit... thankfully it was decorative background and not the butt of the joke :) and I have three big exhibits I'm preparing for by year's end as well.

• I usually work 14+ hours a day in my live/work (emphasis on the work) studio in downtown Albuquerque, NM