Artist's Statement:
A time of change/ transition/ looking back/ looking forward. A time to define the need to create work that is new and to experience whatever unfolds with new understanding and visions. I have sought to shelve my familiars, and to experiment with unexplored materials, tools, shapes, concepts of color and design. I am often surprised, frustrated and invigorated. What I have learned is that the same underlying quest continues to inform my work, regardless of the techniques, surfaces and tools. The ability to capture light and air, the intrigue of layers and the mysteries hidden within, and the absorption and refraction of vibrant color remain my focus. I wish for the viewer to share my journey and to join me as we discover together.
Roberta Friedman Bio
From the age of nine to sixteen, Roberta studied art history and painting at the studio of Sebastiano Mineo in New York City. In 1962, at Douglass College, Rutgers University, she continued her art studies in the studio art department that had been chaired and influenced by Roy Lichtenstein, and continued to study at several studios in Philadelphia and Boston, before moving to New Haven in 1970.
Roberta has participated in painting workshops at Omega Institute, with Judith Cornell’s Mandala workshops, with watercolorist Jan Hart at Ghost Ranch in Abique, New Mexico , and with many well regarded local teachers. Roberta has exhibited her work in the greater New Haven area, with pieces in the permanent collection of Yale New Haven Hospital, and many private collections. She has continued to study and share her knowledge of water media and collage techniques with children, teens, and adults in the greater New Haven area, and teaches workshops creating Journey Books at Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven.
Exhibitions and Collections
Roberta’s work has been shown throughout the New Haven area for more than 40 years:
2005 Yale Medical Building, New Haven show–permanent collection
2005 Creative Arts Workshop Cultural Passages juried show
2006 New Haven Jewish Community Center, Woodbridge, show of Ketubot (illuminated Jewish marriage contracts)
2007 Yale Medical Building, Guilford show, permanent collection
2007 Connecticut Watercolor Society juried show, John Slade Ely House, New Haven
2007 101 Dresses, juried exhibition, Artspace, New Haven
2009 Hull’s One Whitney Gallery, Three After Thirty, June-July 2009
2009 Artspace, selected group member show, July, 2009
2011 City Gallery, New Members New Work, January 2011
2011 Dialogue in Color, juried exhibition, juried exhibition, Bruce S. Kershner Gallery, Fairfield, CT, May,
2011, prize winner 2011 Connecticut Watercolor Society, juried exhibition, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, May, 2011
2012 City Gallery, New Haven, Elemental: Roberta Friedman, Collage and Roslyn Meyer, Photography, January, 2012
2012 Bruce S. Kershner Gallery, Fairfield, Connecticut, juried prize winner show, Jan-Feb. 2012
2014 City Gallery, New Haven, Break In/Out/Through, paintings, October, 2014
2016 City Gallery, New Haven, Fourplay, paintings, July 2016
2017 Niza Knoll Gallery, Denver, Colorado, Wax Stories 2, national juried encaustic show, November 2017-January, 2018
2018 City Gallery, New Haven, Cuba Adrift, paintings, encaustics, April, 2018