Howard Schwartzberg was born in 1965 in Coney Island, Brooklyn. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute and his Masters in Education from the University of New England, Maine. Schwartzberg began showing work in 1990 and has been in several group shows in New York, including the Drawing Center and Stux Gallery. He has had solo exhibitions at Momenta Art, Silverstein Gallery, Dorsky Gallery and most recently at 57W57Arts in New York City. In 1999 the artist created “Surface”, a large environmental earthwork in Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY. During his tenure as a New York City high school art teacher, he has developed site-specific art programs for hundreds of children, including those living in group homes, family shelters, drug rehabilitation centers and youth detention centers. In 1999, Schwartzberg received the New York City Art Teachers Association/UFT Honorary Art Educators Award in the High School Category.
After a twenty-year period of focusing his art making with education, in 2020, Schwartzberg is set to retire from the New York City Public School System. In 2016, he started his painting practice once again and looks forward to exhibiting and sharing his work around the world.
Statement
I have always questioned the traditional parameters of what a painting is, how it is made, what it can do, and where it can go. Using the materials within the customary aspects associated with traditional painting, a wood support, the canvas and paint, I switched-out the roles these materials play. Through a comprehensive reimagining of these elements I have repurposed these materials. This investigation has led me to push my personal perception of the relationship between painting and sculpture, especially the shared qualities, and it is my hope to succeed in leading the viewer to question their own expectations.
I still employ a fabric support, but in addition to canvas, works are also made with tarpaulin, jute and used burlap bags. The canvases are usually torn, sewn or glued together to make a work. The canvas is more than just a substrate for paint and resembles more of a structure informed by the paint, and I invite other associations, a painting/sculpture that could be regarded as a garment, a bag or vessel, even a bandage.
Often, the wood I integrate into the work has a prior history, and the discoloration and distressed surfaces are a kind of wound. The relationship between canvas and wood can differ from one work to another. I want to encourage a less fixed sense of the roles they play, which also permits me to investigate any compelling aspects that might emerge.
I perceive paint as having form reacting to gravity as it is poured, applied or placed on a canvas. The paint’s surface is flat with a monochrome color, protruding from the wall to share the viewer’s space. This expanded field of painting often leads itself to site-specific installations. I do not paint illusions, however, in my work the paint itself becomes the illusion in an interchangeable relationship between painting and sculpture.