thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail
 
 
thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail
 
 
thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail thumbnail

“Local painter Kerwin employs many of the same techniques, and is even more committed to a formal language based in geometry, but she seems to develop her work in the opposite direction, from the inside out. Even though her rectilinear structures align themselves carefully with the edge of her panels, Kerwin composes them as if coaxing them out of the heart of the picture, rectangles spiraling out and fixing themselves, somewhat off-center, with a surprisingly elusive compositional logic. For all their contemplative tidiness, Blum and Kerwin paint richly and sexily.…”

—Peter Frank, “Wild Brushfire Set By Gary Edward Blum, Barbara Kerwin, Dennis Hollingsworth”, LA Weekly, May 28, 2008
Full Review

 

“For years Barbara Kerwin has been a maverick manufacturer of the most sensuous, skin-like abstract paintings in Los Angeles. But instead of falling into a touchy-feely trap, Kerwin posits her textures in rigid geometric patterns. The effect is a soothing, cool humanism—rare in this genre still dominated by the Soviet-like sensibilities of Kasmir Malevich.”

—Mat Gleason, “Gary Edward Blum Barbara Kerwin,” Artscene, 2008
Full Review

 

“Barbara Kerwin's exhibition of elegant and coolly formal abstractions opened recently in Santa Monica.”

—Robert Kingston, “Barbara Kerwin Exhibit,” Echo Mountain, May 1, 2008
Full Review

 

“barbara kerwin's work has gone from the sculpturaly minimal to a take on the grid and it's potential. she works in [oil in high melt wax], now adding acrylic and it's flat opacity, for a more complex visual give and take. the wax rests in relief on the surface almost quivering there in it's armature. this is sensitive, poetic stuff that one should expect from an artist of her stature.”

—Mark Zimmerman, Zimmerman On Art, May 3, 2008

 

Window VII by Barbara Kerwin Window VII, by Barbara Kerwin

“Barbara Kerwin has been working with rectangles and [oil in high melt wax] for over a decade. Each series has reflected her background in sculpture and examined the possibilities of harmony and freedom within containment and structure. In her current series, Windows, Kerwin continues her formal, geometric approach, but the work is now activated by irregularity.”

—Editor, “Gary Edward Blum: Quiet Room, Barbara Kerwin: Windows,” Los Angeles News of the Visual Arts, Now–May 31, 2008