When Rebecca Baruc was 11 years old, she began to show her drawings from her journal to a teacher, Barbara Herzberg. For eight years, Baruc would study alongside Herzberg where she would focus on still lifes and draw from reality. It wouldn’t be until college—at Skidmore in New York—that she would begin to dive into abstraction, sculpture, conceptual art, and performance art. Growing from this exploration, she began to draw the people she loves.
This process resulted in Baruc creating more intentionally, “and with much longer bouts of existential dread in between productive moments.” During the pandemic, she was able to incorporate a daily discipline. She says, “Key word: practice; lots of failing involved. I certainly became more empathetic to myself, slowed down, and realized nothing monumental happens in a rush nor in a vacuum.”
On the back wall of the gallery are paintings that touch on themes of nudity, intimacy, and relationships. In one piece, two figures are intertwined on an abstracted background. Geometric shapes fill up the background space and hard lines outline the bodies. As Baruc notes earlier, she worked with images and videos of herself moving in order to create some of the digital prints. Her silhouette creates a shape as she draws a background with similar outlines and curvatures to her body. Here, Baruc is examining herself. In the first half of the show we meet Baruc’s colleagues and friends; in the back half of the gallery, we meet the artist.
Through 7/11, Juliet Art House, 1750 S. Union, julietarthouse.com.
