Jeffrey Ackerman
The contents of this invented world appeals directly to the imagination of the viewer and to the vast storehouse of imagery we each carry with us—collective, historical and personal in nature.
My paintings and sculpture depict psychic or metaphysical dramas rather than events that take place in time and space. All of nature is in a constant state of transformation, an oscillation between creation and destruction. My characters and the stories they inhabit are metaphors of creativity and metamorphosis. All creation myths, including the big bang story, seem to begin with some primordial chaos from which all forms emerge. The artistic process is analogous to, and an expression of, this recurrent archetype of creativity. I paint and sculpt to discover and clarify forms and images intuited in the chaos of my psyche. The characters that appear are aspects of my persona and the spaces depicted are the rooms and landscapes in the theatre of my mind. The contents of this invented world appeals directly to the imagination of the viewer and to the vast storehouse of imagery we each carry with us—collective, historical and personal in nature. The mind of artist and viewer connect with the living, evolving collective human imagination, absorbing its history and creating its future.
It is important to me that the manner of representation emphasizes a quality of existing outside of time and in an indeterminate space, like a dream, myth or fable. I incorporate the forms artists have used for thousands of years— naturalistic, architectonic and geometric. My style and imagery fuses operatic and Baroque fantasy with archaic stylization but is delivered with a modern sense of humor, our defense against the absurd. The instinct to anthropomorphize a symbol or metaphor is powerful, and the human figure naturally dominates the historical vocabulary of the visual arts. Human anatomy is not essential to human representations. Buildings, decorative forms, tools, machines, animals, and plants can all represent the human—not merely the human appearance but the magnificent human mind—the shadow of the divine.
Education
1983-1984 Washington University, School of Fine Arts, St. Louis, MO
1981-1983 SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
Solo and Two - Person Exhibitions
2017 Artifact and Artifice, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, ME
2015 Pop-up, The Garage, Portland, ME
2014 Duet, Betts Gallery, painting & sculpture, Belfast ME
1989 Helio Gallery, painting, sculpture & furniture, New York, NY
1987 New Work from New York, Gallerie Flamme, painting & sculpture,
Heidelberg, Germany
Group Exhibitions
2021-22 Myth, Cove Street Arts, Portland ME, (https://www.covestreetarts.com/exhibitions-1/myth)
2021 ARTPM 2021, Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME
2020 CMCA Biennial 2020, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
29th Annual Juried Show, Bowery Gallery, New York, NY
ARTPM 2020, Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME
2019 Dimensional, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME
ARTPM 2019, Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME
2016 Overlords, SRO Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Retrieval of the Beautiful, The Painting Center, juried show, New York, NY
Neurotica, CTN Gallery, co-curator and participant, Portland, ME
2015 Fired Up, Harlow Gallery, Harlow, ME
Bon Appétit: Food Production, Presentation, Politics, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME Creatures and Critters, Richard Boyd Art Galley, Peaks Island, ME
Rumpus Redux, Engine Gallery, Biddeford, ME
2014 Holiday Offerings, Richard Boyd Art GalleyPeaks Island, ME 31 flavors, Betts Gallery, Belfast ME
Rumpus Redux, Engine Gallery, Biddeford, ME
2013 Earth, Waterfall Art Center, Belfast, ME
Radius, Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME
2011 Radius, Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME
2001 Broome Street Studio, painting & sculpture, New York, NY 1992 Helio Gallery, New York, NY
1988 Wall mural, Heidelberg, Germany
1986 Democracy Now, P.S. 26, group show, Bronx, NY
Press
Kany, Daniel, “Jeffrey Ackerman Exhibit at the Maine Jewish Museum is the Surreal Deal,” Portland Press Herald, November 19, 2017 http://www.pressherald.com/2017/11/19/art-review-jeffrey-ackerman-exhibit-at-maine-jewish-museum-its-the-surreal-deal/
Keyes, Bob, “Husband and Wife show at Maine Jewish Museum,” Maine Today, November 13, 2017 http://mainetoday.com/maine_art/husband-wife-show-time-separately-maine-jewish-museum/
Writing
2015 – 2018 Maine Art’s Journal, Editorial board member and writer
http://maineartsjournal.com/?s=Jeffrey+Ackerman
2015 Meta Review; Kenny Cole at Buoy, The Chart, Vol. 1, No. 2, October 2015 http://thechart.me/meta-review-kenny-cole-buoy/
2015 The dream-like spirituality of Elizabeth Fox’s paintings, The Chart, Vol. 1, No. 3, November 2015 http://thechart.me/dreamlike-spirituality-elizabeth-fox-paintings/
Related professional experience:
2008 – Present Traditional Line Ltd., New York, NY
Architectural restoration company specializing in all aspects of
landmark and institutional restoration, period room installation,
residential restorations and historic reproductions.
Selected Projects:
2016 - 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Project manager for the installation of the staircase from Cassiobury Park, Herfordshire, ca. 1677–80 https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/coll ections/esda/cassiobury-staircase-tl
2008 - 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Project manager for the installation of Rockefeller dressing room, previously removed from the Museum of the City of New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/arts/design/ peeking-into-the-gilded-age-at-the-met.html
2009 - 2019 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
Project manager for installation of Newland Room, built in 1747, Hamilton Palace Dining room, and 7 American period rooms, 2 period Doorways and 1 period wall, installed in the new American Wing.
1987 – Present Ackerman/Weinberg, New York , NY., Morrill, Maine
Partner in company specializing in the conservation and restoration of antique furniture, architecture and objects; architectural and furniture carving.
1996 – 2002 Arader Galleries, New York, NY, Gallery Director Responsible for purchases, sales, publicity and client relations.