Neil Berger

Portrait
monotype
image size 18” x 24”

Streambed
monotype
image size 24” x 18

Neil Berger

Bio

Neil earned a BA in cognitive science and studio art from Stanford University and earned and MFA in painting from the school of fine arts at Boston University. He has been a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a Golden Foundation for the Arts grant.

Statement

Looking at the contemporary art world, I find that I am an outsider, an outlier, or worse; but I have no choice about the vein I work in. The work I most admire is blatantly in love with nature. When I see Egon Schiele drawings (not so much the mannered early work but the later, more direct work) I think, what else is there to do but draw people (or houses, chairs) with such devastating passion and intelligence? 

When I get tired of working in the sky--trees--fields landscape style I think of Charles Burchfield. His openness and ecstasy before nature is humbling. Obviously all I can do is to pursue my own awe. Wyeth said one's work goes as deep and as far as one's love. I believe that.

 For more information, visit Neil's website at: www.neilberger.com