Jeffery Ackerman
“The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives signs.” — Heraclitus
My paintings and sculpture depict psychic or metaphysical dramas rather than events that take place in time and space. All of nature is in a constant state of transformation, an oscillation between creation and destruction. My characters and the stories they inhabit are metaphors of creativity and metamorphosis. All creation myths, including the big bang story, seem to begin with some primordial chaos from which all forms emerge. The artistic process is analogous to, and an expression of, this recurrent archetype of creativity. I paint and sculpt to discover and clarify forms and images intuited in the chaos of my psyche. The characters that appear are aspects of my persona and the spaces depicted are the rooms and landscapes in the theatre of my mind. The contents of this invented world appeals directly to the imagination of the viewer and to the vast storehouse of imagery we each carry with us—collective, historical and personal in nature. The mind of artist and viewer connect with the living, evolving collective human imagination, absorbing its history and creating its future.
It is important to me that the manner of representation emphasizes a quality of existing outside of time and in an indeterminate space, like a dream, myth or fable. I incorporate the forms artists have used for thousands of years—naturalistic, architectonic and geometric. My style and imagery fuses operatic and Baroque fantasy with archaic stylization but is delivered with a modern sense of humor, our defense against the absurd. The instinct to anthropomorphize a symbol or metaphor is powerful, and the human figure naturally dominates the historical vocabulary of the visual arts. Human anatomy is not essential to human representations. Buildings, decorative forms, tools, machines, animals, and plants can all represent the human—not merely the human appearance but the magnificent human mind—the shadow of the divine.
EDUCATION
1983-1984 Washington University, School of Fine Arts, St. Louis, MO
1981-1983 SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2017 Artifact and Artifice, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, ME
2015 Pop-up, The Garage, Portland, ME
2014 Duet,Betts Gallery, painting & sculpture, Belfast ME
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 CMCA Biennial 2020, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
29th Annual Juried Show, Bowery Gallery, New York, NY
ARTPM 2020, Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME2019 Dimensional, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME
ARTPM 2019, Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME2016 Overlords, SRO Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Retrieval of the Beautiful, The Painting Center, juried show, New York, NY
Neurotica, CTN Gallery,co-curator and participant, Portland, ME2015 Fired Up, Harlow Gallery, Harlow, ME
Bon Appétit: Food Production, Presentation, Politics, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME
Creatures and Critters, Richard Boyd Art Gallery, Peaks Island, ME
Rumpus Redux, Engine Gallery, Biddeford, ME2014 Holiday Offerings, Richard Boyd Art Gallery Peaks Island, ME
31 flavors, Betts Gallery, Belfast ME
Rumpus Redux,Engine Gallery, Biddeford, ME2013 Earth,Waterfall Art Center, Belfast, ME
Radius, Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME2011 Radius,Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME
2001 Broome Street Studio, painting & sculpture, New York, NY
PRESS
Keyes, Bob, “Husband and Wife show at Maine Jewish Museum,” Maine Today, November 13, 2017
Kany, Daniel, “Jeffrey Ackerman Exhibit at the Maine Jewish Museum is the Surreal Deal,” Portland Press Herald, November 19, 2017
WRITING
2015 – 2017 Maine Art’s Journal, Editorial board member and writer2015 Meta Review; Kenny Cole at Buoy, The Chart, Vol. 1, No. 2, October 2015
2015 The dream-like spirituality of Elizabeth Fox’s paintings, The Chart, Vol. 1, No. 3, November 2015
RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2008 – Present Traditional Line Ltd., New York, NY Project Site Manager
Architectural restoration company specializing in all aspects of landmark and institutional restoration, period room installation, residential restorations, and historic reproductions.
SELECTED PROJECTS
2008 – Present Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Project manager for the installation of the staircase from Cassiobury Park, Herfordshire, ca. 1677–80
Project manager for the installation of Rockefeller dressing room, previously removed from the Museum of the City of New York.
2009 – 2012 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
Project manager for installation of Newland Room, built in 1747, the Hamilton Palace Dining room, and 7 American period rooms, 2 period Doorways and 1 period wall, installed in the new American Wing.
1987 – Present Ackerman/Weinberg, New York , NY., Morrill, Maine
Partner in company specializing in the conservation and restoration of antique furniture, architecture and objects; architectural and furniture carving.
