Culture critic Eleanor Heartney in a conversation with the artists and curator of SELF: Portraits + Places on view at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts in Woodstock, NY from June 24 through August 6, 2023.

Eleanor Heartney, a long-time contributing editor of Art in America, is the author of numerous books, including Art & Today, Postmodern Heretics, and co-author of After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art. This relaxed discussion among painters Brenda Goodman, Julie Heffernan, Elisa Jensen and curator Melinda Stickney-Gibson will explore the artists’ motivations, practice, and process.

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About the Artists in SELF: Portrait + Places

Brenda Goodman: Considered “one of the most powerful and disturbing achievements of portraiture in modern art” by critic John Yau, Brenda Goodman paints herself in full-body, naked and standing alone in her own studio. These figures predate Goodman’s more recent abstract paintings and were featured in an early 2023 solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY.

Julie Heffernan: The fluidity of the female form combined with the botany of the natural world merge together in the paintings of Julie Heffernan. These personal allegories become mythic tales of heroines with a strength that can control telluric currents, redirect the stars and ultimately bend destiny.

Elisa Jensen: The serenity of space and the intimate connection to objects in our world is Elisa Jensen’s subject matter. Depicting humble domestic objects and phenomena such as a lamp, a book or a beam of yellow light through a window Jensen presents a cumulative message of who we believe we are.

About the Curator:

Melinda Stickney-Gibson has had over 25 one-person exhibitions, and has participated in numerous group shows throughout the country. Her work has been reviewed in ARTnews, ARTS Magazine, REVIEW Magazine, Neoteric Art, ARTNET, and she has been a recipient of two Pollack Krasner Grants. In 2022, Stickney-Gibson curated the outdoor exhibition Shelter for the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s White Pines Estate.