Jillian Goldberg
Cary, North Carolina
Jillian paints vibrant contemporary paintings that intrigue and delight the viewer with strong unexpected colors and fresh loose brushwork.
Message
Jillian Goldberg grew up in South Africa and received her BA in Art Education from Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town. After immigrating to the US with her family in 1982, she created private art programs for children under license to Monart, as well as founding and directing innovative summer camps for gifted children which ran at Queens University in Charlotte NC for over twenty years. Since retiring in 2006, Jillian has returned to painting and attends workshops, shows in local and regional juried shows and is active in local arts organizations in the Raleigh/Durham region.
During her time in the Raleigh area, Jillian attended a critique group for several years with Ben Williams, the retired first curator of the North Carolina Museum of Art. Ben became a cherished friend and mentor and after interviewing Ben and his wife, Professor Margaret Williams, she wrote a short biography of his extraordinary life which was published in 2014 . The book is available on Amazon and is titled, "Benjamin Forrest Williams, a biographical essay."
HIghlights of Jillian's long career as a professional artist include the creation of a three woman show titled "Black, White and Read All Over," which ran at the Greenville Museum of Art (NC) from June- October 2021. One of her pieces was acquired by the Museum for their private collection. The exhbition included a sold out night of jazz music in the gallery, with Steinway artist Lenore Raphael and faculty from Eastern Carolina University. Jillian delivered a presentation on the connections between visual art and music, including the phenomenon of Synesthesia.
In 2023 Jillian was juried into a show at The ArtRoom in Greenville South Carolina, where she sold five paintings over one weekend. This same year she was honored to be selected by the national art consultancy, GrandImage Design, as one of two artists from the Cary area to provide original art for a new building in Cary. Seven of her paintings were chosen for the collection.
She was awarded First Place in the Small Treasures exhbition at Cary Gallery of Artists, juror Susan B. Schumacher, in 2025. She was selected for a solo show at the Judea Reform Community in Durham which runs June- October 2025.
Jillian was invited in 2023 by the North Carolina Museum of Art to present a hour long lesson on Intuitive Painting for their YouTube education channel. She also presented a sold -out, in-person class on Right Brain Drawing at the Museum.
In 2023 Jillian was awarded an art residency at La Maison de Beaumont in Provence, France, where she will live for five weeks during the summer in 2024, in a small community of five other artists from different disciplines.
Her work is in private collections in the US, UK, Israel, Holland, Moldova and South Africa.
Statement
Artist Statement
My work is rooted in an exploration of place—both remembered and reimagined—drawing from architectural forms, landscapes, and seascapes that are filtered through an abstract, contemporary lens. Influenced by my home environment in South Africa, I translate familiar terrains into compositions that balance structure and fluidity, where built and natural elements dissolve into one another.
Working in acrylic and mixed media on canvas and wood panel, I incorporate collage and layered mark-making to build textured surfaces that suggest both depth and movement. My process is intuitive and responsive; I allow each piece to evolve through accumulation, erasure, and reconstruction. This approach reflects not only the physical layering of materials but also the emotional and sensory experience of place—how it shifts over time and through memory.
The influence of the German Expressionist movement can be seen in my use of bold, saturated color and gestural energy. Color becomes a central language in my work, used not to replicate reality but to heighten it—transforming landscapes into vibrant, immersive spaces that evoke feeling rather than description.
I am particularly interested in the balance between abstraction and recognition. While traces of architecture, horizon lines, and coastal forms may emerge, they remain open-ended, inviting viewers to navigate the work through their own perceptions and experiences.
Ultimately, my intention is to create paintings that evoke joy and a sense of wonder. I want viewers to feel a freedom within the work—to pause, explore, and interpret without constraint. Each piece becomes a space for reflection and imagination, where meaning is not fixed but continuously unfolding.