Flashback, 2002, oil on linen, 42" x 42" Collection of Martin Muller

This exhibition marks the first comprehensive presentation of Kremer's work during the last 12 years. The show will include large-scale paintings, a number of video animations and a room-size video projection. In conjunction with the exhibition, the ICA is publishing Kremer's first major monograph with essays by Amei Wallach and Eleanor Heartney and an interview by Cathy Kimball.

Kremer's large-scale, intensely colored abstract paintings are built on childhood memories, everyday observances and experiences, and family traditions. Her canvases emit a sense of risky adventure that is harnessed only by familiar references to abstract expressionism, cubism, Italian futurism, and even Bay Area figuration. While the initial effect of Kremer's canvases is one of chaotic color and energetic movement, the paintings are built around representational references, albeit oblique. Text, architectural elements, facts of nature, and figures are all inscribed beneath the bold brush strokes and bright and startling colors. Kremer has assimilated the best of Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, Arshile Gorky, and Wassily Kandinsky, to name but a few, to create her multi-faceted paintings that are ultimately unique in their beauty.

In 2000, Kremer began using electronic media in order to incorporate the element of time in her work. Through an extremely innovative process of animation, Kremer deconstructs the layers of her paintings to reveal hundreds of individual elements of color, brush stroke, texture, composition and distinct objects moving through space. These animations are projected from floor to ceiling on two or more walls, thereby altering the physical relationship one normally has to painting. The immersive experience is like walking into a canvas. The two-dimensional painting is transformed into a three-dimensional painted world. Entering the world of digital animation, Kremer is creating a bridge between painting and digital media. She is one of the artists pioneering a dialogue between hand-made traditional media such as painting and new media, with digitally created art.

Naomie Kremer was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she spent her childhood before moving to Brooklyn, NY. She now lives and works in the Bay Area. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester and a Masters in Art History from Sussex University in Brighton, England. In 1993, Kremer received her MFA in painting and drawing from the California College of Art (formerly known as the California College of Arts and Crafts). From 1997 - 2001, Kremer taught painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She has also held teaching positions at California State University, Hayward, CCA, and Pont-Avon School of Contemporary Art in Bretagne, France. She has been a guest lecturer at Oxford University, England and with Syracuse University's Study Abroad Program in Florence, Italy.

visit Naomie's website at www.naomiekremer.com

San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
451 South First Street San Jose, CA 95113 tel (408) 283-8155 fax (408) 283-8157
Subscribe to e-mail announcements Gallery hours Artist Information