Stephanie Serpick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and MFA from the University of Chicago. Her work has been shown in various exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally, and she is a fellow at several residencies, most notably at the Florence Trust Studios in London, Ragdale in Illinois, and the Vermont Studio Center, where she was awarded a full fellowship and stipend to attend. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

You can learn more about her at her website.

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The paintings displayed here stem from both reactions to events in our country and the world, as well as personal loss.

 

 

They are intimate paintings represented by unmade beds and tossed sheets, absent of any human evidence, on intentionally blank, somewhat rough backgrounds.

 

 

The empty bed here represents a place for grief, depression or isolation.

 

 

As such, the work speaks to our shared feeling of grief, with the understanding that while we all suffer in our individual ways, suffering is universal.

 

 

Source material for this work are photographs I have both taken and found, and the intimate size of the paintings references the intimate nature of the subject matter.

 

 

The backgrounds of the paintings are repeatedly painted and sanded, to create a frame and backdrop for the bedding that is flat, yet rough with work and time.

 

 

The bedding itself is seen from different perspectives, but still indicates a scene of desolation and despair.

 

 

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