Andrea Morganstern
Medium: Painting Studio Location: Artist Studios at 43-01 22nd Street - Studio# 417 43-01 22nd Street Email: andreamorganstern@gmail.com Website:: www.andreamorganstern.com Artist Bio: Andrea Morganstern's work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States and internationally, including the Islip Art Museum in East Islip, NY, the Attleboro Arts Museum in Massachusetts, the George Segal Gallery at Montclair University and Bartok 1 Gallery in Budapest, Hungary. In New York City her work has been exhibited at Shelter Gallery, Winkleman Gallery and Capla Kesting Fine Art and she has an upcoming solo exhibition at Shelter Gallery. Her paintings are in numerous collections, including the Masterworks Museum of Art in Bermuda and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, MO. Morganstern was born in Queens, NY and studied at The School of Visual Arts and the New York Academy of Art. She lives and works in New York City. Artist Statement: In my paintings, I use dots as building blocks to create imagery that ranges from minimalist abstraction to complex biomorphic forms that fuse human, animal and botanical elements, exploring themes of unity, impermanence and the cycle of creation. The inspiration to use dots came from the discovery of beautiful images in the specks of tea grounds at the bottom of a cup. Through this process of building forms with dots, I explore ideas about the true nature of things in the physical world, and their lack of permanence and solidity, despite how they appear to our eyes. I am intrigued by the concept from string theory about how beyond the level of molecules, atoms and subatomic particles, all things are composed of vibrating filaments of energy. Similarly, Indian philosophy describes the physical world as an illusion. Recurring patterns in nature have always interested me as they suggest an underlying blueprint and my work incorporates the pattern that appears in neurons, tree branches and river networks as a major motif. I also explore the fractal nature of the physical world by creating an ambiguity of scale to allow for a range of interpretations from interstellar dust to microscopic organisms. My process begins with small watercolor and acrylic studies on paper which I then expand into larger scale acrylics on canvas and panel. All images and text copyright Andrea Morganstern