One of our featured artists for Nocturne this year was Patrizia Berdkan.
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| Strange New Worlds, Acrylic on Board, 36"x36" |
Patrizia is an artist we met through last years Pre-Shrunk group show, since then we have watched her work develop from the small 5"x7" PreShrunk show requirements to the amazing collection she brought us for Nocturne this year.
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| Invasion, Acrylic on Board, 30"x48" |
Patrizia's show HOME SWEET HOUSE (still up until early next week and available online
HERE anytime!!) boasts an awesome assembly of both large scale works and a collection of 12"x12" squares. With all the pieces following the theme of housing, each painting tells an unexpected story of "home" through its bright and lively colour palette, objects in a state of motion and playful, whimsical titles. Patrizia also took
fun to the next level with many of these works by including GLOW IN THE DARK paint!
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| Break All The Rules, Acrylic and Acrylic Polymer on Board, 12"x12" |
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| Break All The Rules, it glows in the dark! |
Sprinkled throughout the smaller works you'll find sections like special confetti lighting up these works even in the dark!
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| Patrizia Berdkan, at home in her studio. |
Patrizia's has always been a creative person, often turning to pen and paper as a child to stay entertained. Her love for painting houses began in her youth where she would "draw them over and over again, almost obsessively" while spending Saturday afternoons tuning in to Bob Ross and getting lost in the magic of him creating his own imagined worlds. Ultimately this magic would inform the love and connection Patrizia has for the image of home and how her artistic practice would form.
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| Patrizia's home studio |
It might surprise you to hear Patrizia's approach for these extremely structured paintings is one of complete freedom and emphasis on letting the work create itself.
"I rarely start a piece with a real concrete plan in mind and I like to see where the shapes of what I’m creating take me. I put on my headphones, put on some music, pick a color of paint that speaks to me"
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| A collection of Patrizia's paints |
The inspiration for Patrizia's art stems from both pop-culture and vintage aesthetics, where she enjoys taking the "sharp minimalism of the fifties and sixties and mixing it with the brightness and optimism of the colors of the eighties and early nineties" To Patrizia this duality is rooted in nostalgia and the connection to her experience as a child and the influence of her parents generation before her.
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| Picture This If You Will, Acrylic on Board, 36"x36" |
HOME SWEET HOUSE may be at the end of it's gallery debut BUT fear not if you were not able to catch the full show! Many of the works will remain up and around the gallery (and available online HERE), as well as a few select pieces heading off to The Oxford Taproom in the weeks to come... grab a coffee or a drink at the Oxford and keep your eyes peeled for Patrizia's work!
