ARTIST STATEMENT
Colored light, movement, aged walls, and juxtapositions of old and new—I use these elements to narrate stories in which the characters are as much the architectural nuances as the literal figures occupying the specific quotidian space.
I am fascinated by the marriage of history and contemporary society. While I respond most to the figurative compositions of Old Masters from the High Renaissance and Baroque periods, I actively explore the exchange between this tradition and how it connects to our modern world. Whether a quiet interior scene punctuated by modern-day details of a digital camera or iMac speaker, or louder discoveries like a graffiti-warrior on a market stall’s door lurking behind a working Señora, I see the classical tradition of painting as a vehicle to discuss the many exciting domains of thought and contemporary culture.
Since the summer I graduated from Brown University, I have been living in Barcelona, Spain. With generous support from the Fulbright program, I was able to work amidst massive Romanesque frescos in the collection of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, painting from a series of wooden 11th-13th century sculptures of the Virgin and Child. My objective was to explore the textures of the decaying wood, the suggested patterns that remain on the now mostly faded clothing, the distinct facial constructions, and the subtle mood and feminine power embodied by each individual Mary.
Outside the museum, I began to see every street of Barcelona as a work of art, from the large-scale graffiti paintings (or contemporary frescoes) on building façades, to the deteriorating walls that carry so much history yet are commonly disregarded. Though I had always painted the figure in interior environments, I moved outside almost involuntarily, following the freshness and vibrancy of the outdoor culture of Barcelona and letting that be a key force in my work. The city itself became my subject. With this series, graffiti grew to be more than a backdrop for my figurative compositions; it became a tool with which I could explore the fine line between fiction and reality, flat and dimensional, crude and refined, painted and alive.
I strive to bring attention to the moments that quietly characterize the tone of a setting; the temperature change in a wall, a crack on the door, the flipped fringe of a rug. It is my hope that by stopping a potentially mundane scene in paint, the viewer will relate to the moment and will, too, be able to enter the given world I have created. I see painting as an opportunity to capture the subtle intricacies of the world around me, responding to mood, energy, and the relational subtext between its characters and the personal spaces they occupy. Indoor or outdoor, people or places, I paint scenes I have fallen in love with, and through this, allow myself to get lost in the painting.
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
2006-07 Fulbright Grant: painting from the Romanesque frescoes and sculptures in the Museu Nacional d’Art de
Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
2007, 04 Odd Nerdrum, Summer Painting residency, Stavern, Norway
2002-06 Brown University, Providence, RI, Magna cum laude: BA with honors in Visual Arts; BA in History of Art
& Architecture
2005
Yale University, Norfolk, CT (Yale Norfolk Summer Residency ’05)
2005 Trinity-in-Barcelona, Visual Arts Program, Barcelona, Spain (Spring ’05)
2004, 03 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (Spring semesters)
1998-02 Carver Center For Arts & Technology, Towson, MD
2001 Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Summer Seminar, Colorado Springs, CO
REPRESENTATION
SOLO EXHIBITS
2009 (One-person show) Warner Gallery, O'Brien Arts Center, St. Andrews School, Middleton, DE, September
“Barcelona and Other Doorways,” (One-person show) Mason Hall Alumni Atrium Gallery, George
Mason University, Fairfax, VA
2006 “Intimate Instances," (One-person show) List Art Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
2003 “Laini Nemett,” (One-person show) List Art Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
“Laini Nemett,” (One-person show) Carver Center for Arts & Technology, Baltimore, MD
GROUP EXHIBITS
2008 “Corazón Loco,” Espai B, Barcelona, Spain
2008-04 “Annual Alumni Exhibition," Carver Center for Arts & Technology, Baltimore, Maryland
2006, 04 “2006 Student Art Exhibition," Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
2005 “Honors Art Exhibition," List Art Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
“Student Show," Yale Norfolk Art Gallery, Norfolk, CT
2004 “Laini Nemett, Nisa Zwagel, & Rachel Levinson", Gordon Center for Performing Arts, Owings Mills, MD
“2004 MAEF Alumni Exhibition,” Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
“Juried Student Art Exhibition," Hillel Art Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
Summer Group Show, Galerie Francois et Ses Freres, Baltimore, MD
2003-05
“Conversations," collaboration with William Bailey, Robert Kogge, and Barry Nemett, Traveling
Exhibition: Evergreen House, Baltimore, MD, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art (DCCA),
Wilmington, DE, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2002 “Maryland Artist Equity Foundation Finalists' Art Exhibition," Howard County Department of Education,
Ellicot City, MD
“Baltimore County High school Art Exhibition," Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College, Towson, MD
2001-02 “Barry and Laini Nemett: Related Works of Father and Daughter," Chung-Cheng Art Gallery, Sun Yat
Sen Hall, St. John's University, Jamaica, New York
2001 “Maryland Distinguished Scholar in the Arts Recognition," Knott Convocation Complex, Mount St.
Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland
“Marie Walsh Sharpe Summer Exhibition,"Packard Hall Gallery Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
2000 “Parallel and Crooked Tracks: Collaborations and Related Works by Barry and Laini Nemett," University
of Maryland, University College Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland
1999 "Maryland Youth,"Gordon Center For Performing Arts, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Art Gallery,
Owings Mills, MD
1998 "Summer Students Art Exhibition," Goucher College, Rosenberg Gallery, Towson, Maryland
ARTICLES
“Student Exhibition 2006.” David Winton Bell Gallery. Exhibitions: Current. 19 March 2006
<http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/David_Winton_Bell_Gallery/current_frameset.html>.
Steele, Robin. “Art opening in Hillel Gallery Draws Students, Parents,” Brown Daily Herald. 17 October 2005.
Kaufmann, Leslie. “Student Branch of Council Bring Arts to Campus.” Brown Daily Herald. 22 March 2004.
Alexander, Sandy. “Students hoping to be one of 20.” The Baltimore Sun, 18 February 2002: 3B.
“The Ordinary Begets the Mysterious.” The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Chronicle Review: End Paper, 14
December 2001: B23.
"Exhibit: Nemett." Queens Tribune. Queens Today. 20 November 2001
<http://queenstribune.com/today/html/lastweek/qt-exhibit.html>.
“Perfect Harmony.” Jewish Times, 27 April 2001: 77.
Featherstone, Jared. “Color, media, and family mix in father-daughter exhibit.” Gazette (feature article), April 2000.
Walike, Deborah. “Two’s Company: Barry and Laini Nemett open their two-person show of collaborative
works at the University of Maryland.” Jewish Times (feature article), 14 April 2000: 86-87.
OTHER INFO
AWARDS/ HONORS
2007 Nominated for the Lewis Tiffany Foundation Award
2006-07 Fulbright Scholar in Painting; Barcelona, Spain
2006 Ann Moranis Belsky Prize (achievement in Visual Arts), Brown Visual Arts Department
Minnie Helen Hicks Premium Award for Painting in 2006 Brown University Student Exhibition
2005 Selected for Yale Norfolk Summer Residency
Conway Travel Grant, Brown University; To paint in Rochefort-en-Terre, France
2004 1st Place Painting Award in Brown University Student Exhibition, Minnie Helen Hicks Premiums in Art
2002 1st Place in the Coca-Cola Art of Harmony Contest
1st Place Scholarship, Maryland Artist Equity Foundation
“Best-in-Show” & “People’s Choice” at Baltimore County High School Art Exhibition, Goucher
College, Rosenberg Gallery
Silver Portfolio Award, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
National Presidential Scholar in the Arts Semi-Finalist
NFAA ARTS (Arts Recognition and Talent Search) Level 1 winner in Visual Arts: Painting
2001 Sharpe Scholar, Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, Summer Seminar
Maryland Distinguished Scholar, Talent in the Arts
2000, ‘01 2nd place in the Coca-Cola Art of Harmony Contest
SCHOOL INFO
0 - 0, Brown University
