English Kills Gallery is pleased to present New Paintings by Jim Herbert, an exhibition of large scale, representational works derived from explicitly pornographic photos sourced from internet searches on the artist’s Blackberry. From this screen-sized reference that offers little detail, Herbert extrapolates the figures, adapting them to a 9’x10’ canvas in compositions reminiscent of a film still. These newest paintings for English Kills are a departure from the classical references in last year’s exhibition by Herbert, with less emphasis placed on the development of landscape and deep space and a more dominant focus placed on figuration and abstracted backgrounds. Jim Herbert: New Paintings will open at English Kills Gallery in Bushwick on Saturday, September 10, 2011 with an artist’s reception from 6-9pm. This event is free and open to the public of all ages.

With gloved hand instead of paintbrush, Herbert manipulates the acrylic with impressive gesture and painterly expression, rendering his subjects with thoughtful preciousness in a careful and considerate exploration that probes the humanity and, at times, preposterous nature of the sexual act with wonder, fascination and curiosity. Known for working with the nude figure in both his films and his paintings, Jim Herbert clearly avoids delimiting the work as categorically base or vulgar by maintaining an honest examination of the self in relation to the other.

“Pornographic source material is most interesting to me not because of its fantasy, but its ACTUALITY. What are these people DOING? Are they intense? Are they engaged? Am I focused on them to the exclusion of all noise in the universe? And will they “make” a painting? That is their utility, but it IS bound up in obsession, fascination. These figures are triggers and signifiers for a painting. Not turn onbut turn into. Becoming – not coming. From the concrete actuality of pornography, to the painting as transcendent state of (im)possibility. HOW did these figures get here?” – Jim Herbert

From a tiny image on his Blackberry, Jim Herbert amplifies the nudes and subjectively translates them into large scale paintings in a mixture of concrete identity and abstraction.A student of the American Abstract Expressionist, Clyfford Still, Herbert’s work is primarily figurative, although his rendering of the source material in this manner can also be seen as heavily expressionist and atmospheric. In this latest exhibition, backgrounds become abstracted and figuration dominates. Because the narrative is stripped down, the form and sexual action becomes confrontational, begging the viewer to engage in this shared space of humanizing what could easily be dismissed as vulgar.

“With today’s porn-soaked internet and sexually liberated gaze, nudity’s shock value is dismally low. Something else plays out in Herbert’s huge canvases. By depicting the tenderness between lovers, these images portray intimacy — the same emotional concept that pays therapists’ mortgages.” – Daniel Larkin

James Herbert received two Guggenheim Fellowships: one in 1971 for film, and the second in 1989 for painting, supported by Jasper Johns. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum; The Walker Art Gallery in Minneapolis; and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Martin Scorcese, Gus Van Sant, Larry Clark, Michael Stipe, Elton John, Coca-Cola, and NationsBank are among the other collectors of his work.

Mr. Herbert has exhibited widely both in the United States and abroad. His work has been included in two Whitney Biennial exhibitions and has been shown at P.S.1. His many honors include a MacDowell fellowship in film in 1971 and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant for painting. The National Endowment for the Arts has supported his work in both film and painting many times.

James Herbert received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.F.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently he is living and painting in New York City.

English Kills Art Gallery was founded in March of 2007—the first gallery established in Bushwick, Brooklyn, now, a thriving art scene featuring well over a dozen galleries. In line with the spirit of this scene, English Kills represents a full range of Brooklyn-based artists and showcases art created from a range of mediums.