Project Description
CURRENT EXHIBITION
Numinous Substance – September 7 to October 21, 2023
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITION
Small(ish) Treasures – November 17 to January 3, 2023
Robert Sagerman, 19,400, 2019, Oil on linen, 48 x 46 inches
Merging painting, sculpture, and Jewish mysticism, Robert Sagerman approaches each one of his textured, abstract compositions as an act of devotion. He begins by creating his own rich mixtures of oil paint, which he squeezes in individual dabs directly onto the canvas. He builds up thick, massing surfaces, ranging from monochromatic to rainbow-colored, in works that toe the line between painting and sculptural relief. Along the way, he counts and records every single one of his marks and tracks the time he spends on each composition, titling his works after their total number of marks—often reaching into the many thousands. This is in keeping with an ancient kabbalistic practice of meditation through counting, which was seen as a route to the divine. Each one of Sagerman’s paintings, is an act of meditation, the embodiment of the artist’s striving toward the sacred.
Robert Sagerman was born in Queens, New York, and currently works in Jersey City, New Jersey. He received his BFA in 1990 and MFA in 1998 from Pratt Institute. He also holds an MS in Art History from Pratt Institute as well as an MA in Religious Studies and a PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. Sagerman’s work has been reviewed by Art in America, NY Arts Magazine, Kunstforum International, Art News, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among many others. He is in the public collections of the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum in Hagen, Germany, and the Museum Für Konkrete Kunst in Ingolstadt, Germany.
Numinous Substance is Robert Sagerman’s first solo show with Nancy Toomey Fine Art in San Francisco.
