Known for her elegant paintings and drawings, Hilary Taub will be exhibiting recent figurative works and abstractions at FIG.  Taub is a sophisticated painter and draftsman who creates works that are refined, confident, and strikingly beautiful.  The artist uses a color palette of subtle earth tones along with painterly atmospheric passages and gracefully drawn lines to develop figures and shapes that seem to continuously emerge, disappear and re-emerge.  Her compositions are the result of meticulous observation and disciplined execution, yet remain playful, fresh and spontaneous.  Ultimately Taub’s work resonates with the sheer joy of art-making.

Taub writes of her work, “These pieces grew out of a lifetime of figure drawing and a love of abstraction; a joy of pushing paint around a canvas and the appreciation of the elegance of a charcoal line; the beauty of shapes against open space.  As I continue to explore the dialog between line and paint, abstraction and figuration; I find myself searching for harmony.  Like the world around me, my work has become more complex and chaotic. Yet in the confusion I feel a need to find beauty.

“The process begins as always with a history, an old painting that I use as the ground for the new piece.  Some pieces stay with the figurative theme.  Working from live models I layer drawings upon drawings noticing how the figures interact and how the formal elements connect.   I start painting out areas and adding elements, searching for a combination that suits me.  Naturally when there are figures a narrative presents itself; and each viewer brings with them their own interpretation.

“For the abstract pieces I again start with an old painting, this time I cut up the paper.  I notice the fragments left on the page.  And again I look for the harmony.  I add line, color, shape, I paint over and take away elements.  In some of these pieces I like the complexity of marks and shapes, other times I feel the need to simplify.  Slowly the elements relate to each other and a composition emerges.”

Hilary Taub studied art history at Tufts University and painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

For further information, please contact:  Jeff Gambill, Director (310) 829-0345.