Nüart Gallery presents “Surfacing," an exhibition featuring new work by Michael Bergt.
In a continuation of Michael Bergt’s exploration of allegorical realism and contemporary interpretations of classical myth, "Surfacing," delves into the mystical and metaphorical meanings of gold in artwork, and the symbolic exploration of submersion and emersion. Bergt uses gold in his artwork to represent the internal world, a luminous, aqueous reflection of the unconscious in which the mystical and spiritual aspects of human perception circulate. Absorbed in these subjective realities, Bergt’s figures find themselves bound by the question of whether to surrender to submersion or to emerge on the surface with the full range of experience.
In these elegantly refined works on paper and egg tempera paintings Michael Bergt demonstrates his graceful, impeccable line work as it dances across figures and their surroundings, growing in capacity as light is altered across fields of gold. In these archetypal narratives, Bergt's figurative subjects are rendered with realistic, sensual attributes that connect them to the present-day, and engage in surreal narratives and classical tales layered with mythology. By simultaneously observing their external presence and glimpsing their internal imaginings, these subjects appear remarkably unique and extraordinary.
