JEFF BLIUMIS
POCKET PAINTINGS

JOHS is pleased to present POCKET PAINTINGS, a solo exhibition by artist Jeff Bliumis.

When I first started making these miniature paintings, which I called Pocket or Traveling Paintings, the idea was quite simple: to make paintings that could travel easily, that could almost fit in a pocket. They would take up very little space on a wall or within an environment, but still have enough energy to attract the eye and invite someone into their small world.

I was inspired by the idea that a small image could contain the full concentration of an expression. I love the laconic quality of it, the concision that the scale asks for, the squeezed essence of an image. A small painting can become a kind of magnet for the eye. I also like the modesty of the space it demands on a wall, the practicality of moving it from one place to another, from one exhibition or environment to the next, and the simple economy of it. There is something warm and intimate about a small painting, and somehow that intimacy can make the space around it feel larger.

I also think about scale in a broader sense. We happen to live somewhere between the incredibly large and the unimaginably small. We exist somewhere in the middle. In a way, these paintings allow me to think about these different scales and about a small image as a complete world in itself.

The way I make the works is an important part of this idea. Each one begins with its frame, which is made in bronze. I think of the frame as both a pretext and a context for the painting; it becomes integrated into the work so that painting and sculpture merge into one. I begin by sculpting the frame in wax, treating it as a sculpture in itself, something that will eventually hug and carry the painting. One has to support the other.

Once the frame is finished in wax, it goes to the foundry, where it is cast in bronze, polished, and patinated. The whole process can take about two months before the frame is ready for me to paint on it. The images themselves come from many different places. Often they are suggested by nicks, shadows, or small marks; sometimes they come from real people and events, and sometimes from fantasy and dreams.

- Jeff Bliumis

Portrait by  Justin Bettman

Jeff Bliumis is a New York-based artist. He received his BA from Columbia University in 1980 and also studied at the University of California, Berkeley; California College of Arts and Crafts; and The New School in New York.

Bliumis has exhibited internationally at the First, Second, and Third Moscow Biennales of Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia); Busan Biennale 2006 (Busan, South Korea); Assab One (Milan, Italy); the Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York, US); Galerie Anne de Villepoix (Paris, France); Centre d’art Contemporain (Meymac, France); The James Gallery at The Graduate Center, CUNY (New York, US); the Museum of Contemporary Art (Cleveland, US); Museums of Bat Yam (Bat Yam, Israel); the Jewish Museum (New York, US); the Saatchi Gallery (London, UK); and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK).

His work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia); Museums of Bat Yam (Israel); the Saatchi Collection (UK); Harvard Business School (US); the Museum of Immigration History, Paris (France); and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (UK).

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