Artist of the Month December 2008

Glenda F. Hydler

Brooklyn, New York

In Glenda's current series "Strategies of Containment", she moves forward in breaking boundaries in painting and challenging modernist thinking by attempting to combine concepts - tensions and contradictions that were present in her past work. Glenda graduated from School of Visual Arts, BFA, California State University, Northridge, BA. English Honors, The City University of New York, MFA. (2008)

How and when did you start creating art?

I am been creating art all my life. I have worked extensively in mixed media, photography, performance and book art.

What media and genres do you work in?

Painted with acrylic on paper and attached directly to the wall the monochromatic red painting, the works nest shapes within each other but allow the enclosed forms to refuse to be fully contained, to push against and through that containment.

Who or what are your influences?

The greatest influence in my life has been my parents. My mother was a writer and psychotherapist. My father, an electrical contractor, boxer and an artist in his own right. As a child my parents enrolled me in classes at the Museum of Modern Art. They would drive me in from New Jersey and wait for me till my class was over. From the museum, we would spend time walking around the village, going to galleries and off-off Broadway productions.

Balancing out formal and emotive concerns, my current work addresses the tension between the formal values of abstract painting and the emotional concerns that are the ultimate source for the work.

Describe your creative process?

Process is an essential part of working through these tensions to the final painting. In a series of progressive moves hard-edged lines are constructed with a squeegee, evaluations are made of the current state of the painting, and further moves continue to be made until the painting is declared finished. The final painting cannot be predicted from the initial move and revisions of many of the completed marks are not allowed. This is painting that hearkens in some ways back to the modernist tradition of abstract painting but, in a manner more akin to post-modernism, does not buy into the ideal of completeness and stability of modernism. This refusal of stability relates to my current work in painting to the photograph-based books that constituted a major portion of my earlier career as an artist. Dealing with issues of personal and gender identity, these works enacted in a somewhat more personal manner the tensions that are treated in formal terms in the current work.

What are you working on currently?

I am currently working on the series which are displayed. Strategies of Containment. The individual paintings are titled, Coagulations.

Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?

My book work is contained in the collections of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University and The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. I am currently working on a website which is www.glendahydler.com. I can reached directly also at Glenda.Hydler@baruch.cuny.edu.

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