e-mail: c.eisenfeld@cox.net
website: www.eisenfeld.com
Portfolio
Workshop
Background
Candice Eisenfeld studied painting at Bezalel in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1995 she received her BFA (cum laude) from the University of Texas in Austin. Since moving to Tempe, she has been reviewed in several publications including Art News and Art and Antiques Magazine. Southwest Art Magazine featured Eisenfeld in an article, "21 Under 31." Her paintings are on display at galleries and museums throughout the United States and have acquired an international following.
Her Work
In a quest for universal understanding, Eisenfelds' work entertains the interaction between intellectual reasoning and the mysteries of emotion. There is a chain of rarefied thoughts, fragmented memories of textures, figures and panoramic landscapes visited only in dreams. These subconscious windows are affixed with an intuitive order and suspended upon a cosmological space, connecting the dualistic theories between physical and mental reality.
It is perhaps a way of storytelling; an archeology of the id. Her paintings are meant to explore levels of meaning as they connect our personal experiences to a world severely distanced from ourselves.
Statement: “As an American exploring issues of identity, memory and the passage of time, I have chosen to paint primarily through a nostalgic lens from the first American art movement, The Hudson River School of Landscape Painting, to parallel the subconsciously romantic eye of a collective American culture. Rather than depicting a site-specific locale, my focus is to evoke a sense of place inherent within the painting process. These ‘inner landscapes’ are invented, and often referenced from photographs taken during travels. Whether real or imagined, they are infused with the influence from Dutch Master, Tonalist, and Chinese Painting.
“Although created on a single panel, these ethereal landscapes are often juxtaposed with segments of aqueous color fields whose energetic swirls of paint act as commentary for the landscapes, like the chorus in a Greek play. The crisp, hard edges separating the landscapes from the color fields command a sense of order in an otherwise unabashed painterly surface. With two or three sections of the panel competing for attention, the painting creates multiple focal points. The primary narrative elements- the path, the moody sky, endless sea, and isolated trees- adjacent to the secondary abstracted elements are the icons used to form my language of expression.
“While each painting may have individual meanings, the overall body of work focuses on the journey of life that includes notions of memory, identity and passage of time. The artistic process used to explore these subjects is reflected through the application of paint. Just as memories emerge in and out of our sub-consciousness, contorting into surreality, I paint intuitively, pouring washes over previous layers leaving traces from an earlier generation peering through a gauze-like screen of paint. One is confronted by these contradictory layers that make references to memory; articulating through painterly abstraction that make no other reference to an existing place other than an inherent emotional position inside the psyche.
“The paintings are meant to explore levels of meaning as they connect our personal experiences to a world severely distanced from our-selves. My interest lies in understanding what is at the core of human nature- desire, curiosity, need for love, acceptance, and hope. It is narrating a personal archeology of the id while simultaneously relating to other people what is timelessly universal.”
Education
1995 University of Texas at Austin, BFA in Studio Art, Honors
1993 Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem, Hebrew University, Jerusalem,
1993 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Selected exhibitions
2008 Buchanan Gallery, Featured Artist- Galveston, Texas
2007 Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon Honorarium Exhibition - Phoenix
2006 Lisa Kurts Gallery-Contemporary Landscapes - Memphis, Tenn.
2006 West Valley Art Museum -Secrets of the Garden - Surprise
2005 Northern Arizona University Art Museum, Flagstaff
2005 Lisa Kurts Gallery- Contemporary Views - Memphis, Tenn.
2005 Art In Embassies-Namibia, Africa
2004 Art in Embassies- Minsk, Belarus
2004 Circa Gallery-Featured Artist-Minneapolis
2003 Dolby/Chadwick Gallery-San Francisco
2003 Lisa Kurts Gallery-Winter Invitational-Memphis, Tenn.
2001 Vanier Gallery- Featured Artist-Scottsdale
2001 Circa Gallery-Featured Artist-Minneapolis
2001 Mesa Southwest Museum-Mesa
2000 Vanier Gallery- Featured Artist-Scottsdale
2000 Circa Gallery-Minneapolis, Minn.
2000 Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas
2000 Pleasures of the Palettes-Invitational - Phoenix
1999 Mesa Arts Center-Dreamscapes, Mesa, Juror: Julie Sasse
1999 MARS -LaPhoenaquera. Juror: John Spiak, Phoenix
1998 Shemer Art Center- “The White Show,” Phoenix
Selected private collections
Norwest Bank, Minneapolis
Northwest Airlines, Tennessee
Deloitte Consulting, Seattle
Public collections
University of Texas at Austin
Shemer Arts Center, Phoenix
Selected commissions
1998 Installations - Biltmore Estate
1997 Installations - Mesa Southwest Museum
1995 Installations - Una Gallery
Awards and scholarships
2002 Arizona Commission on the Arts, Professional Development Grant
1998 AWCA Juried Show "Jurors Choice Award"
1998 Academic Scholarship, Scottsdale Artist School
Grants and fellowships
2008 Fellowship, Hambidge Center for the Arts
2007 Grant, Career Development Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts
2007 Fellowship, I-Park Foundation
2004 Fellowship, Helene Wurliztor Foundation
2003 Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation
2002 Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
2009 Grant, Professional Development Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts
1999 Residency, Tempe School District
Selected lectures / speaking engagements /seminars
2009 Guest, KXAM Radio
2008 Guest Lecturer, Mesa Community College
2008 Seminars, Shemer Art Center
2007 Guest Lecturer, Scottsdale Artist School and Shemer Art Center
2006 Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Education Series
2006 Secrets of the Garden, West Valley Art Museum
2002 The Science of Painting, Arizona State University
1999 Hayden’s Ferry Review, Arizona State University, Literary Journal
1998 KAET Television Interview at Shemer Art Center
Selected publications and reviews
2007 Phoenix New Times “Scenes From The Oracle” Review -W. Holden
2006 American Art Collector: November editorial by Josh Rose
2005 Phoenix Magazine- March: Featured Artist by Linda Groneman
2005 FlagLive! -interview by Evan Wyloge
2005 Arizona Monthly, January Issue
2005 Art-Talk, January Issue
2004 Borealis Books Press "A Northern Front" by John Hilderband.
2003 Phoenix Home and Garden-Interview
2002 The New Times- Review of Exhibition by Deborah Sussman Susser
2002 Arts and Antiques Magazine- Interview
2001 Valley Tribune, Sunday Arts, The Ones To Watch
2001 The Arizona Republic, ASU Journal Features Artists, Poet
2001 The Arizona Republic, East Valley Artists Travel North
2001 Phoenix Home and Garden, March Issue
2001 Southwest Art Magazine- '21 Under 31'
2001 Hayden's Ferry Review- Front Cover June Issue.
2000 The Arizona Republic -Painter Has Art World Buzzing
1998 Get Out- Review of ‘Dreamscapes’
1998 Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine