Kim Goldfarb
Kim Goldfarb Biography
“My work is figurative, depicting mainly women and girls. Some have called my paintings portraits, and I guess in some ways they are. However, I don’t set out to paint a portrait of a particular person and I don’t use live models. Sometimes I browse photographs of people I don’t know as reference points for paintings. Old black and white snapshots are some of my favorites. The expression on the sitter’s face is often what attracts me; In many of my paintings a lone woman stares solemnly, directly at the viewer. The only narrative in the painting is with the viewer. These women want to engage us, to be seen and understood." - Kim Goldfarb
Kim Goldfarb Description
Kim Goldfarb (b. 1951, USA)
Kim Goldfarb grew up in a small rural town in Georgia during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Goldfarb received a BFA degree in drawing and painting at the University of Georgia. Later she moved to Chicago and worked as a gallery director while simultaneously maintaining a studio practice as a painter for 17 years. She took a break from painting to work on sculptural work, but in 2009 she felt the profound need to go back to painting. Her work depicts women and girls of all ages and backgrounds.
Goldfarb currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she devotes her time to making her mixed media paintings. There are no live models or photographic references. When she gets into the studio, she starts out very loose with a background of gestural marks. Through these marks, she discovers curves that are reminiscent of a woman’s face or figure, and that’s the moment the true subject is unlocked. Through this intuitive way of working, themes come out that relate to how she is feeling in her life at that moment. She enjoys working alone in her studio. She isn’t truly alone, as she is breathing life into the women she creates.
Drawn to the backroads, the unexpected calls to her. Extensive figurative training, she can draw a figure completely from memory in a convincing way. Emotion is the most important element to her work. Her goal is to connect with the viewer on a human level. Most of her figures look out and gaze at the viewer, locking eyes in order to tell their story.
Strike a Pose is a 54 x 32 in mixed media painting on clayboard. It’s composed of varying values of grey except for the head and decolletage which are pinks and fleshy hues. The woman’s eyes and eyelids are vibrantly blue. The head and shoulders of the figure is paper that has been collaged onto the board. She casually looks out at the viewer, holding her ankle in a stretch.
Goldfarb has exhibited at many major art fairs and solo exhibitions in the U.S. She lives and works near Albuquerque in an area of beauty, solitude and majesty with her artist husband and her dogs.
Kim Goldfarb Statement
"I am an artist who is a storyteller. I use images instead of words to draw the viewer into an alternative reality. Her humans, and sometimes animals, interact in ways that seem familiar, yet not. They are in a sense “becoming”, in a state of creation. Perhaps they are not completely formed and inhabit an energetic space filled with movement and pattern.
I primarily work in acrylic and mixed media on panel, often incorporating paper collage. My favorite tools are steel wool, rags, clay scrapers, charcoal, and my fingers. I enjoy the physical nature of my work, often placing the board on the floor, pouring, spattering, and scraping the paint. I intuitively pull images from the marks and stains. At this time I feel the creative energy inside of me needing to be expressed. It is a process ruled by the heart, not the mind. I don't plan or do preliminary drawings. I just begin painting and allow what wants to come out to do so. This is my way of birthing new life, finding joy in the doing of it." - Kim Goldfarb
Kim Goldfarb Resumé
Education
Valdosta State College, Valdosta, GA
BFA, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Selected Exhibitions
2023 "Nostalgia", Freeman Gallery, Santa Fe NM, Group Exhibition
2021 “The Problem We All Live With”, Not Sheep Gallery Columbus, OH, Group Exhibition
2020 “She”, Bender Gallery, Asheville, NC
“Go Figure”, Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL
2018 SOFA Chicago, Bender Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017 SOFA Chicago, Bender Gallery, Chicago, IL
Solo Exhibition, Peterson Roth Gallery, Bend, OR
2016 “Mistique”, Bender Gallery, Asheville, NC
SOFA Chicaho, Bender Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Night Fishing”, Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL, Group Exhibition
Art Palm Beach, Bender Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL
2015 SOFA, Bender Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Italian Traditions: Murano Meets St. Pete”, Chihuly Collection Exhibit Space, St. Petersburg, FL, Group Exhibition
2014 “Glasscentric”, Chihuly Collection Exhibit Space, St. Petersburg, FL, Group Exibition
Solo Exhibition, A Muse Gallery, Columbus, OH
2013 “Hot Gatherings, Cool Conversations”, Artist Talk, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL
“Body of Proof: Figures in Glass and Paintings”, Duncan McClellan Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL, Group Exhibition
2009 SOFA West, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
“En Fuego”, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, Group Exhibition
“Albuquerque Artists in Taos”, A Muse Gallery, Taos, NM
“Bird's Nest Invitational”, Brandon Michael Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM, Group Exhibition
2008 “Crossing Boundaries: Eight Artists in Glass”, Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
2007 “Wild at Heart”, Liz Hernandez Gallery, Tucson, AZ
Dual Exhibition, A Muse Gallery, Columbus, OH
2006 Art Scottsdale, Scottsdale, AZ, Duo Exhibition
2005 “Small Works”, Exhibit 51, Albuquerque, NM, Group Exhibition
Solo Exhibition, Marigold Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2004 “The Goddess Show”, Marigold Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2003 “The Magical Female Figure”, Marigold Arts, Santa Fe, NM, Solo Exhibition
2001 Solo Exhibition, The New Fisher Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Group Exhibition, Silk River Artisans, Albuquerque, NM
Group Exhibition, First Peoples Gallery, Silverthorne, CO
Group Exhibition, Gallery Five, Tequesta, FL
2000 Group Exhibition, Gallery Five, Tequesta, FL
Group Exhibition, Mariposa Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1989 Grant, Chicago Artists Abroad, Zurich, Switzerland
Duo Exhibition, Peter Noser Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
Art Basel, Peter Noser Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
Duo Exhibition, Jagendorf – Bacchi Gallery, New York, NY
Publications
2017 “Kim Goldfarb, Thrill of Artist Discovery”, Cover Story, pgs. 12, 13, Cascade A & E Magazine
2014 “New Gallery Space at the Chihuly Collection”, Tampa Bay News Wire
2013 “Praise”, Featured Image, Quiddity International Literary Journal, Volume VI
2008 “Blown Away” by Hollis Walker, Art Issue, Santa Fean Magazine
“Crossing Boundaries: Eight Artists in Glass”, American Art Collector Magazine
2007 “Modern Exploration of the Human Form”, 500 Handmade Dolls
2005 “Emerging Artists”, Art & Antiques Magazine
“Kim Goldfarb's Mixed Media Sculpture”, Art Doll Quarterly, Spring 2005 Edition
2004 “Dance Was Her Religion”, Janet Roseman, Ph.D., Datebook/Galleries, American Style Magazine
2003 Gallery Previews, Santa Fean Magazine
1994 Art Galleries and Antiques, Where Magazine
1989 “Review of Exhibit at Neville – Sargent Gallery”, by David McCracken, Chicago Tribune
1988 “Celebration: Women Raise Their Individual Voices in Inflection”, by Leigh Behrens, Chicago Tribune
1987 “Art Around America, Chicago”, by Robert Knight, Art Today, Spring Edition
1986 “New Horizons in Art”, by Jeff Abell, The New Art Examiner, Summer 1986 Edition
Selected Corporate Collections
Robert Bowden Publishing, Gainesville, GA
Applied Learning Co., Naperville, IL
Conference Workers, Chicago, IL
Hollister, Inc., Libertyville, IL
James P. Productions, Inc., Chicago, IL
Kovar, Nelson, Brittain, and Sledz, Chicago, IL
The Spada Organization Ltd., Chicago, IL
Gimbel, Abrams, and Singer, Chicago, IL
Georgeson and Company, Chicago, IL
