Roger Goldenberg

In Spring of 2004, Roger Goldenberg's paintings were chosen by the Boston Globe's Calendar Choice pick of the week! Goldenberg has been praised in the news media as a "high quality abstract artist," his paintings are "a close metaphor for the best jazz"...remarkable for their "expertly choreographed compositions." His abstract pieces are like "improvisational conversations in paint" that develop in his subconscious mind. Chris Millis, the former Living Arts Editor for Boston's South End News and current editor for artsMEDIA, exclaimed that "these are paintings you could 'listen' to forever."

Last year Roger was awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2006 New Hampshire "Home-Based Business Champion of the Year." He was lauded by governor John Lynch at an awards ceremony sponsored by the NH Small Business Association.

Most recently Roger Goldenberg received the 2007 Artist Entrepreneur Grant Award from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts for his innovative plan to enhance his website and to create his new webstore: www.rgpaintswebstore.com. This award is made possible by appropriations from the Governor of New Hampshire, the NH State Legislature and a National Endowment for the Arts grant to the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

Roger has exhibited with numerous galleries including solos at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery on Newbury Street, Boston, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH and the former Rye Gallery, Rye, NH. Currently Goldenberg exhibits at Gallery AA/B, 535 Albany Street, Boston and Gallery @ 38 Cameron, Cambridge, MA.

I play trumpet as a hobby and I listen to jazz as I work. My artistic language reflects my love for music – especially jazz and improvisation. Even when my studio is silent, jazz is there, inside me. My imagery is jazz made visible: layers of melodies and rhythms, swinging and syncopating, calling and responding. This visual improvisation is conjured from a deep place and appears as gestures, colors, symbols, and glyphs. Shapes, textures, and patterns move through me onto my canvas. My paintings share the complexity and innovation heard and felt in the Bee Bop innovations of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Byrd and jazz explorer of 'terra incognita,' Wayne Shorter. I call my work, ExpressaVizzazzaVeeBopanism.

I paint with vibrant colors on highly textured, innovative, shaped canvases. These canvases are built with collaged fabrics, gesso, epoxy, string, and thin plywood. They are ingeniously lightweight and durable. The jigsaw puzzle shapes in my paintings are born from forms I see in nature. They become a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all things in the world. The cutouts create vacant shapes and shadows, counterpoint to the painted shapes. The outer edges jut into space, casting shadows that move as the light of day changes. Arrangements in texture are the foundation for paint. This underlayer builds rhythms and gesture and is the structural underpinning for the spatial relationships I then create in paint.

My visual language is personal yet universal. The collective unconscious shares mythological motifs and primordial images. Noticing the silhouette of a tree or a cloud, the shape of a corroded piece of metal, or a melting patch of snow can inspire them. I see these potentials for creation as images when they enter my consciousness. My canvases reveal constellations of these archetypal images. They are rooted in the unconscious just as a tree is rooted in the ground. These archetypes shape matter as I see it in nature and these same archetypes shape me as well. I use the colors, shapes, and patterns to express my connection to this universal unconscious.

Modern painters who date back to the late 19th century influence me. Manet flattened shapes and imbued his figures with symbolism like that in Byzantine Christ figures. Gauguin, Matisse, and Picasso used imagery from the art of primitive tribal cultures, absorbing their archetypical symbols and spiritual essence. Painters Kandinsky and Mondrian carried these intentions forward while jazz began to shape American music. Visual artists and musicians melded ragtime, spirituals and field songs of African slaves using their call and response method and the rhythms of the forebears’ tribal music. My artwork moves this legacy forward by channeling contemporary jazz with symbolism from the universal unconscious.

My art is currently developing in several new directions. All my mediums are becoming more spatial and three. I continue experimenting with works on paper, for it is a very spontaneous medium, and its immediacy is a wonderful contrast to my oil painting process. I am bringing my vision forward with new site-specific pieces for large public and private. Currently I am negotiating with Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum to fill their request for a site-specific painting for the 2008 grand opening of their new facility. I am also currently networking with fabric designers to bring my contemporary imagery into the design industry.

Back to Artists Back to Home