Robert Sagerman

Cris Worley Fine Arts is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition of Robert Sagerman|Fieldwork: Flows, Thickets, Clearings, Strata. The exhibition will open with an artist’s reception on Saturday, March 30th, from 4–7 pm, and will run through May 4th. The event is free and open to the public. This is the New Jersey- based artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

Robert Sagerman’s paintings reflect the artist’s longstanding fascination with how, in the realm of art, the material turns symbolic to transcend its physical constraints. Sagerman’s paintings on canvas—lusciously weighted with thousands of daubs of paint—take us somewhere immaterial yet nonetheless fully felt. The assertive materiality of Sagerman’s works creates patterned movements that evoke the natural world, that remind us of the movement of water, of wind, of light. Their color gradations reflect the shifting shadows and radiance of the natural world at dawn and sunset.

These universal qualities reflect Sagerman’s concern with what painting can communicate across time and space, and also across belief systems. As Sagerman writes, “In painting there is only materiality at hand, even if one wishes to embody something of the immaterial.” There is no denying the physical sphere; to accept it is to be mindful. But this anchor doesn’t stop us from striving to rise above the hard facts of our corporeal existence, to land somewhere more connective and universal.

Robert Sagerman was born in Queens, NY and currently works in rural New Jersey. He received his BFA and MFA from Pratt Institute. He also holds an MS in Art History from Pratt Institute as well as an MA in Religious Studies and a PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. Exhibitions include: Nancy Toomey Fine Art, San Francisco, CA, Galerie Renate Bender, Munich, Germany; Heather Gaudio Fine Art, Greenwich, CT; Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO. Sagerman’s work has been reviewed by Art in America, NY Arts Magazine, Kunstforum International, Art News and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, among many others. His work is in the collections of the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR); The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum (Hagen, Germany); and the Museum Für Konkrete Kunst (Ingolstadt, Germany), as well as other notable corporate and private collections.

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Fieldwork: Flows, Thickets, Clearings, Strata

March 30 – May 4, 2024

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