Timothy Bergstrom

In the off space, Timothy Bergstrom is showing recent paintings in his first solo exhibition with the gallery. These “Glounds” — a curious combination of glue and sound — begin with invented language and quickly move to pure material and process. The words act as both a structure and foil for this young Chicago painter who’s been experimenting with material formulas to achieve the amazing results found in this new work. It’s his desire to solidify the phonetic and tonal effects of language which he achieves using material to build surfaces that pulsate and transmit. As the paintings progress, the words are buried under the layers of glue, paint, floss and wire that eventually build to a dense topography. The paintings have a strong connection to 20th Century process-based abstraction found in artists like Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Günther Uecker and Lee Bontecou. But Timothy’s paintings are much more exuberant; evidence of his energy, passion and love of material and gesture is found everywhere on the surfaces of these new canvases.

Be sure to join us on Saturday, September 17th at 1:00 for a conversation between Timothy Bergstrom and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung as they discuss Timothy’s work in Sound & Vision.

(born 1984) Timothy Bergstrom received his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010 and was the recipient of the Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. His recent projects include exhibitions at Monya Rowe Gallery in New York; The Suburban in Oak Park, IL; FFDG in San Francisco; and Hungryman Gallery in Chicago. He lives and works in Chicago.