www.gildapervin.com

Statement

My work includes both drawing/paintings and sculptural pieces that portray gestural figures and landscapes. The work develops from moment to moment in a spontaneous way. In the paper pieces I often apply the paint with my fingers, and discover the figures within the paint. The sculpture grows through a trial and error choice of found objects that lie in piles on my workbench. I know what effects I am open to, but the process is a dialogue with the piece as it develops. It’s a process of discovery.

For some time I have been working mostly with black and white, shiny and flat paint. Recently I have been asked why I use this limited pallet rather than full color. For me my use of black and white puts me in touch with the effects of black and white movie films: The black abstracts the images into lines, forms, and textures, while still maintaining the scenes of relating figures and vegetation. The use of black and white, or all black, accentuates dark and light as ambient light, or painting of light, play across work, perhaps catching a moment and suggesting the passage of time.

Biography

Gilda Pervin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After receiving BA and M.Litt degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, she went on to get her art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

The year she was graduated from the Academy, 1974, she moved to Dallas, Texas, where she lived and worked for seven years. During those years she helped create “500 Exposition Gallery”, a showplace for artists to try out and exhibit new ideas and visions.

Then, in 1981, she moved to New York City. Since that time, she has been awarded a New York State Council on the Arts Project Grant; a Visiting Artist Project Grant from Texas Christian University and the Pangburn Foundation; a Penny McCall Foundation Grant; a Supporting Grant from Art Matters, Inc; an Artists' Fellowship Grant in sculpture from New York Foundation of the Arts; a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant; and was selected for the Art Cart: Saving The Legacy Project

She has shown work throughout the country, and in Sweden and Brazil. Among the shows were exhibits at the Roda Sten art building, Gothenborg, Sweden; Museu De Arts Contemporanea, Sao Paolo, Brazil; Five Hundred Exposition Gallery, Dallas, Texas; San Antonio Museum of Art; Fort Worth Museum of Art; The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Burchfield-Penny Art Center, Buffalo; Long Island University, Southampton Campus; Islip Art Museum, East Islip; The Art Mission, Binghamton, NY. In New York City, she has shown at Artists Space; Art in General; Creative Time’s "Art in the Anchorage”; Queens Museum; Brooklyn Museum; and Gray Art Gallery. In Jersey City, N J, she has shown at Curious Matters Gallery; and Art House Productions Gallery.

She presently teaches at Parsons, The New School University.