Jeri Eisenberg

These pieces are from an ongoing series, A Sojourn in Seasons. All are from the common wooded landscape of my day to day life - places that are far more ordinary than spectacular.

The images are firmly grounded in the natural world, a particular place, a particular season, a particular time. By photographing with a purposefully oversized pinhole or a radically defocused lens, however, I capture trees and foliage as they are not often seen. Details are obscured, and only the strongest elements remain: the images become sketches with light, literally and figuratively.

The work is unabashedly retinal. But it is also as much object as it is image. The pieces are translucent, reflective and tactile - as a result of the infusion of encaustic into and on the surface of the Japanese Kozo paper. The pieces float off the wall (held in place only by strong magnets at the top), and move with air current in a room. If you are close enough, the scent of the bees’ wax in the encaustic is clearly detectable.

The work is intended to speak directly to the senses: to bypass, on some level, the rational brain. I am happiest when it sits on the balance point between the concrete and the abstract, perception and memory, the there and the not there.

I began this series when my father started loosing both his sight and his memory. Strangely, the work has been comforting. Beauty, though fleeting and fragile, consoles. 

Individual and Small Group Shows:

2009 John Cleary Gallery, Houston, Texas (Solo)
Lanoue Fine Art, Boston (Solo)
2008 Benham Gallery, Seattle, Washington (Two Person Show)
Galerie BMG, Woodstock, New York (Solo)
2007 Gallery Saintonge, Missoula, Montana (Solo)
Exposed Gallery of Art Photography, Delmar, NY (Solo)
2006 Julie Kinzelman Art, Houston, Texas (Solo)
Gallery 100, Saratoga Springs, New York (Three Person Show)
2005 Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, Connecticut (Three Person Show)
Westchester Community College, Valhalla, New York (Two Person Show)
Galerie BMG, Woodstock, New York (Solo and Three Person Shows)
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
2004 Gallery 100, Saratoga Springs, New York (Three Person Show)
Lapham Gallery, Glens Falls, New York (Solo)
Saratoga County Arts Council Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York
Siena College, Loudonville, New York (Solo)
2003 Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, New York (Solo)
Martinez Gallery, Troy, New York
Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, Connecticut
Adirondack Lakes Art Center, Blue Mountain Lake, New York (Solo)
2002 Naoussa Gallery, Tyringham, Massachusetts
Hudson Opera House, Hudson, New York
Jerry Burrell Gallery, Hamilton Hill Arts Center, Schenectady, New York
2001 Perella Gallery, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Johnstown, New York (Solo)
Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, New York (Two Person Show)
Greene County Council on the Arts, Catskill, New York (Solo)
Adams Street Gallery, Delmar, New York
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York (Solo)
Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho (Solo)
2000 University of La Vern, La Vern, California (Solo)
Dietel Gallery, Emma Willard School, Troy, New York
Albany Center Galleries, Albany, New York
1999 Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York (Two Person Show)
Kleinert/James Gallery, Woodstock, New York (Two Person Show)
Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, New York (Solo)
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York (Solo)
Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield, Massachusetts (Two Person Show)
1998 Saratoga County Arts Council Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York (Two Person Show)
Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York (Two Person Show)
LRC Gallery, Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, New York (Solo)
1997 Schoharie County Arts Council, Cobleskill, New York
1996 Shelnutt Gallery, RPI, Troy, New York (Solo)

Selected Invitational Shows:

2009 “Everchanging” Carla Massoni Gallery, Chestertown, Maryland
“Other Nature”, Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson, New York
2008 “Fall – Redux”, Chiaroscuro Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
“Small Packages 14”, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
“On Location”, Wallspace, Seattle, Washington
“Found at FotoFest”, John Cleary Gallery, Houston, Texas
“Some Wonderful Things”, Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art, Sarasota, Florida
2007 (20) Views, Wallspace, Seattle, Washington
Summer Selections and Winter Group Show, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2006 “Trees”, Gallery Kayafas, Boston, Massachusetts
“Alternatives”, Exposed Gallery, Delmar, New York
Artist-in-Residence Exhibition, Catskill Center for Conservation, Arkville, New York
“Picture Perfect”, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York
Summer Show, Naoussa Gallery, Tyringham, Massachusetts
28th Annual Photography Regional, Opalka Gallery, Sage College, Albany, New York
2005 “Encaustic Works”, Dorsky Museum, State University at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York
Inaugural Regional Triennial, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, New York
“Lens Gumbo Redux”, Exposed Gallery, Delmar, New York
“Winter Woods”, Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery, Shelburne, Vermont
“Significantly Small”, Gallery 100, Saratoga Springs, New York
“Into the Woods”, Greene County Council on the Arts Gallery, Catskill, New York
2004 “Out of the Woods”, Catskill Mountain Foundation Gallery, Hunter, New York
“12 By 12”, Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York
Group Show, Naoussa Gallery, Tyringham, Massachusetts
Summer Show, Furchgott-Sourdiffe Gallery, Shelburne, Vermont
2003 “Interpretive”, Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, New York
Group Show, Naoussa Gallery, Tyringham, Massachusetts
2002 “Smaller Than a Breadbox”, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, Connecticut
“Cornucopia”, Catskill Mountain Foundation Gallery, Hunter, New York
“Food”, Greene County Council on the Arts Gallery, Catskill, New York
“Americana”, The Ralls Collection, Washington, DC
“Shades of Summer”, Furchgott-Sourdiffe Gallery, Shelburne, Vermont
2001 Group Show, Furchgott-Sourdiffe Gallery, Shelburne Vermont
“Touch the Spirit”, Schenectady Jewish Community Center, Schenectady, New York
“Interleave”, Northpoint Cultural Arts Center, Kinderhook, New York
“Fowl”, Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York
“A Day in May”, Stewart Gallery, Boise, Idaho
2000 “Library Commission Competition”, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
"Arts and Healing", Morehead State College, Morehead, Kentucky
"Dog Days", Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, New York
"Art and Memory in the Jewish Experience", Schenectady JCC, Schenectady, NY
1999 "Em(body)", Greene County Council on the Arts Gallery, Catskill, New York
1998 "Enchanted Visions", Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, New York
Vanguard Showhouse, Albany Symphony Benefit Exhibition, Albany, New York
1995 "Photography Methods", Michelle Long Gallery, Coppell, Texas

Art Fairs

2009 AIPAD, New York City, John Cleary Gallery
2007 Red Dot, Miami, Carrie Haddad Gallery
Art Now, Miami, Lanoue Fine Art
2006 Photo New York, New York City, Galerie BMG
2005 AAF, New York City, Morgan Lehman Gallery

Grants and Residencies:

2005 Artist-in-Residence Program,
Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, Platte Clove, New York
2003, 1999 Individual Artist’s Grant,
New York State Council on the Arts and the Arts Center of the Capital Region
2002 Visual Arts Residency,
The Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
2001-1997 Special Opportunity Stipends,
New York Foundation for the Arts and the Arts Center of the Capital Region

Education:

M.F.A., Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University, 2005
J.D., Boston University, 1977
B.A., Kirkland College, 1974

Selected Bibliography:

Encaustics: A Guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax, Lissa Rankin, Watson Guptill/Random House
(Release scheduled for Spring 2010)
Hardships, Oddities in Photo Regional, Tim Kane, Times Union, May 18, 2008
Eisenberg in Color, Paul Smart, Woodstock Times, April 24, 2008
Intoxicating Abstraction, Beth Wilson, Chronogram Magazine, May 1, 2007
Photo Regional Exhibit Immortalizes Everyday Images, Tresca Weinstein, Times Union, March 26, 2006
Photography Quarterly #92, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Vol.2 No.3
Fall, 2005
Encaustic Works 2005, Catalogue, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art,
State University of New York at New Paltz

Selected Public and Corporate Collections:

Center for Photography at Woodstock Permanent Collection, Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, New York
Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, New York
Weill-Cornell Medical Center, New York
Banana Republic, New York, New York
Babcock and Brown, New York, New York
Vinson & Elkins, LLP, Houston, Texas
State Street Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts
Ayco Financial Services Corporation, Saratoga Springs, New York
Woodstock Inn, Woodstock, Vermont
Okemo Resort Corporation, Ludlow, Vermont
Spruce Mountain Lodge, Stowe, Vermont
Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, New York
Sheraton Hotel, Stockholm