New Paintings by Benigna Chilla
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, May 23 6-8PM
May 23rd – August 1st, 2014
This exhibition features Benigna Chilla’s new series of large-scale paintings created after her 2012 stay in Bhutan. Vivid yet meditative, they employ architectural, geometric and symmetric natural forms, Bhutanese design elements, textiles and tangkas. Texture is layered from natural pigments like turmeric, saffron and minerals. The meditative and physical process of painting is as important to Benigna as the pieces themselves. The exhibition also features a series of small intaglio prints with embroidery.
Benigna Chilla (born 1940), began her art studies in her native Germany at the Folkwangschule fuer Gestaltung in Essen and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. She moved to America in 1969, completing her graduate studies at the State University of New York at Albany and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has held residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Benigna now splits her time between Chatham, NY and Kolkata, India. She has had over 40 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally.
