Brian Rutenberg was born in South Carolina in 1965.  Currently living and working in New York City, this abstract landscape painter is a recent addition to Forum Gallery’s roster. A graduate of the College of Charleston, South Carolina, Brian Rutenberg participated in his first group exhibition in 1985 and moved to New York shortly thereafter. He received a Master of Arts degree from New York’s acclaimed School of Visual Arts.  As a young and ambitious painter, he sought to capture a unique representation of the landscape through abstraction. The base of his interest stems from growing up between Pawley’s Island and Charleston, where the river and lake merge with ocean. These early childhood memories continue to be a presence in his painting.

In 1997, Brian received a Fulbright Scholarship which afforded him an opportunity to spend seven months in Ireland. It is from his travels there that the artist’s work became shaped by the Celtic Culture, specifically the La Tene Period, 600-400 BC.  Captivated by arabesques of pure abstraction, so powerful in the artwork of this period, Brian began to use a similar merging of forms in his work. Large circular shapes of color transform his canvases into 2 dimensional dioramas for the viewer; each swirl bringing us closer to what seems to be the center of the drama on the picture plane.

Inspired by artists like Gregory Amenoff, Joan Mitchell and Hans Hoffman, Brian Rutenberg executes paintings that embrace spirituality, love of color, and an obvious love of paint. Although nature continues to be the major theme in his paintings, each of his works shows a brand new approach and vision.