The Artist
Born in Chicago, Jeffrey Nemeroff was raised near Los Angeles where he began studying art at an early age. When not in private art class he could always be found with pencil and paper in hand, so there was never a question about what career path might be taken. In college he studied both fine art and design, concentrating on art history, color theory, draftsmanship and the human figure. After obtaining a BFA, he continued an education in painting at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles and began exhibiting his work.
While honing his fine art skills, Nemeroff also enjoyed a successful career as a creative director. For almost fifteen years he lead the photography and design of Architectural Digest magazine, splitting his time between Los Angeles and New York. He was fortunate to have worked with the world's top photographers, interior designers and architects and visited some of the most interesting properties around the world. After deciding to leave the magazine Nemeroff turned his attention strictly to the arts and moved to San Francisco.
The Work
For over a decade the human form dominated Nemeroff's compositions. While working on a series of figures collaged with string, however, his concentration was pulled in a different direction. He became engrossed in the accidental forms that were created by the string and the challenge of establishing a composition from this disorganization, so his work slowly evolved to the abstract. Most recent pieces are produced using various fibers and deconstructed canvas much like a drawing implement, developing primarily unmethodical forms over an acrylic ground. Fabric, wallpaper, silver leaf or found objects are also integrated into the work, which is finished using a more classical painting technique... multiple layers of oils and glazes. The result is an interesting dichotomy between the mass-produced elements and the organic nature of the composition itself.
In 2016 Jeffrey completed a month-long artist residency in Northern Norway, which consequently lead to a new series of seascapes and landscapes. With compositions at various levels of abstraction, he’s interested in capturing the feeling or memory of a place rather than a literal representation of the place itself, and that moment when the relationship between water, earth and sky will never be quite the same again. Gestural movements are significant in the work, and the use of various tools—such as rags, knives, cardboard, wood, paint sticks—help express the unpredictableness of nature itself. A limited color palette further disassociates the paintings from reality, emphasizing that the experience—and the artist’s fading memory of it—is as impermanent as the oceans themselves.
Over the past twenty years, Jeffrey Nemeroff’s work has been included in exhibitions in the United States and Asia—from a group show at the Asian Art Museum in Fukuoka, Japan, to a solo show in New York’s famous Fuller Building. His work can be found in collections throughout the United States—including the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Nashville, Florida—as well as Britain, Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
Nemeroff lives and works in the Outer Richmond district of San Francisco with his wife, Catherine, and dog, Fox.