I have expanded my focus from an exploration of female identity within the constructs of the idealized, mythicized America, and move in a new direction in which the female is minimally present.

These new paintings speak not only to my own loss but to the underlying fears of our current cultural climate. As we slide closer and closer to global crisis – an environment on the verge of collapse, an economy in which the disparity between rich and poor is ever-widening, threats of terrorism, nuclear holocaust, the fear created by having a madman as leader, and on and on.

I’ve begun to question whether there will be a future; or at least a future with humans in it. These paintings reflect my fears and yet also represent my hopes for the post-apocalypse. Maybe what remains after devastation will be the Utopia we had collectively imagined, rather than the dystopia we fear.

The surface of these paintings is torn and collaged astronomical maps printed on watercolor paper and the imagery is painted with gesso, polymerized litho-coal, and acrylic.  

Lauren Bergman | New York City | 2018

Fuel Stop | 14” x 18” acrylic, litho-coal and ink on paper mounted on board | SOLD