Jan Wurm is an artist, educator, and curator engaged in expanding the community forum for contemporary art dialogue. Currently dividing her time between Berkeley and L.A., Wurm has lived in California and Europe honing an eye for social patterns and conventions. With one hand painting, the other drawing, Wurm examines daily encounters revealing contemporary culture. Infused with warmth, humor, and energetic line, her internationally exhibited work is in collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New York Public Library Print Collection, Archiv Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen, and Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna.
This work pursues an interest in the gesture, body language, and social implications of the interactions of people. Beyond portraiture, the paintings have sought to distill imagery to an abstract system which might convey elements of identity, tension, and resolution. With a focus on the everyday and the common, these narratives examine relationships, place, and human nature imposed on the natural environment. With a limited palette, color is used symbolically; composition reflects the connections or isolation o for f the figures. These traditions of figuration provide a pictorial foundation opening dialogue inflected with humor and levity.
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