PATRICIA SWEETOW GALLERY is pleased to present the paintings of Kim Manfredi in the exhibition Bloom, a unique perspective of landscape rife with the poetics of representation and abstraction. Exhibition dates are January 10th through February 14th. An artist conversation begins at 2pm. The Reception follows from 3pm through 5:30pm.

Living and working in the Coachella Valley of California, Manfredi’s rich visual language is influenced by the rugged beauty of the desert, a starkly contrasted landscape rich in succulents and wildlife adapted to the harsh realities of an arid landscape. The desert changes seasonally from greys and beiges to spring’s sparkling drag show, with bright flora bursting in luminous color and divine compositions competing for their brief moment of pollination. This Darwinian contrast is a bedrock of inspiration for Manfredi, its essence distilled into shapes of color with performative flora onstage. Animating the majestic dunes of the region, the desert is not only muse, but also media, as Manfredi sifts through desert sands, mixing small particles contoured by wind, water, and sun with prismatic color.

Manfredi studied with esteemed painters Grace Hartigan and Joyce Kozloff while earning her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA, 2007), where she had the honor of becoming their teaching assistants and friends. Citing both artists as influential, she credits Hartigan for imparting a bold use of brush and Kozloff with her handling of soft edges. Manfredi’s earlier mixed media paintings reflect growing up in Baltimore, living and working in an urban landscape until 2015 whereupon she departed for California.