Brian Rutenberg: Point of Pine

Jerald Melberg Gallery is pleased to present the eighth solo exhibition of new abstract landscape paintings by Brian Rutenberg. With these new oil paintings on linen and paper, the artist returns once again to his reflections on the landscapes of the South Carolina Low Country.

Rutenberg states, All of the paintings in this new series called ‘Point of Pine’ are meditations on imaginary trees as seen through veils of South Carolina Lowcountry heat. The solitary tree has been a primary image in my work for forty-five years; my first paintings were watercolors of a loblolly pine near my childhood home in Myrtle Beach...Little did I know, the directness and simplicity of those studies would provide me with a lifetime of imagery.

A South Carolina native, Rutenberg received a BFA from the College of Charleston and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the College of Charleston and delivered the commencement speech in the spring of 2018. Among his numerous awards and achievements, he is a Fulbright Scholar, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow and an Irish Museum of Modern Art Work Programme Recipient. Since 1985 Rutenberg has been honored with over 100 gallery and museum exhibitions across the United States, including the Hoyt Center for the Arts, Saginaw Art Museum, the Gibbes Museum of Art, Butler Institute of Art and Greenville County Museum of Art.