James Harris Gallery | Squeak Carnwath: "Primary Research"

Squeak Carnwath: "Primary Research"

May 19, 2005—June 25, 2005 | Reception Thursday, May 19th, 6-8PM

Squeak Carnwath’s paintings are ruminations on time, place, and human presence. Her iconography and use of color is a trigger for thoughts, memories and experiences. Through a combination of symbols, shapes and referential objects, Carnwath infuses the work with emotion and meaning. She offers saturated colors in the forms of ovals, blocks, and dots combined with her signature vocabulary of records, wishbones, horseshoes and hand written text to convey both bold exuberance and quiet reflection. These disparate forms become symbolic constructions for Carnwath’s meditations on the past, present and future.

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Squeak Carnwath is a painter and printmaker who uses text, color field painting, and a wide variety of recognizable symbols to make interesting, engaging, and relatable works. Her works have the intimate feel of a diary, but acknowledge universal themes that are familiar to every viewer. Her paintings work together to form a kind of visual conversation within the spaces that they are displayed. Carnwath utilizes traditional painting techniques such as trompe l’oeil and symbolism, while also making statements that question the viewer’s thoughts and emotions. Carnwath wants the viewer to make connections between words, objects and shapes; connections that often evoke moments of humor and sadness. Carnwath currently lives and works in Oakland, California.

She has received numerous awards including the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award for Individual Artists from the Flintridge Foundation. Carnwath is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley.