Rachel Friedberg

Utilizing the ancient technique of encaustic, Friedberg suspends powdered pigments in a wax medium. Building up the surface of each painting layer by layer which results in a translucent “skin”, she then draws on the surface either with an oil stick dipped in wax or scratches images directly into the wax itself. Each series involves a painstaking process of many sketches. Signs, emblems and themes play an important role in her work. Symbolic figures and iconic images are balanced with geometrical shapes, suggesting a deeper and more elusive meaning. Her works are poetic and sometimes ironic exchanges between intimate experience and the rigorous language of geometric abstraction.