James Bertucci
Liminal Fields is an exhibition of recent oil paintings by Brooklyn-based artist James Bertucci.
Across New York City, development sites are bordered by eight-foot barrier walls separating the public sidewalk from private construction zones. The barricades, typically plywood painted “hunter green” or chain-link fencing, form temporary yet imposing boundaries, punctuated by small viewing panels that grant passersby a carefully framed glimpse into otherwise inaccessible, liminal spaces. For Bertucci, these apertures function as portals into a suspended terrain. Behind the walls lies an in-between landscape, overgrown, feral, and temporarily untouched until eventual excavation and rebuilding. The barriers create a tension between inside and outside, wild and contained, while quietly registering broader patterns of urban transformation. Bertucci's paintings center on these temporary enclosures that define construction sites, reconstructing spaces as source material in the studio through layered processes and assembled imagery.
The paintings on view are composites drawn from the artist’s archive of photographs, as well as sensory and color memory. Each work is methodically built through processes that echo the layered physical realities of the sites themselves. Imagery is projected and drawn, then masked and stenciled as paint is rolled, troweled, scumbled, and scraped across the surface. The resulting surfaces carry traces of their making, echoing the detritus, accretion, and textures of painted wood and metal lathing. In turn, the paintings reflect the city’s cycles of change, enacting a parallel act of construction in the studio.
James Bertucci (b. 1989, Chicago, Illinois) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Bertucci graduated with a BFA from Laguna College of Art & Design in 2012 and completed an artist residency at Vermont Studio Center in 2015. Bertucci was selected for the 2016 Southern California/Baja Biennial and has had solo exhibitions at Bob’s Gallery, Brooklyn, Y, and Basement Projects and B-Studios in Santa Ana, CA. Recent group exhibitions in NY include Auxier Kline, Greene House, and Studio 9D. To learn more, visit jamesbertucci.com.
“James’s exhibition at MA underscores the important role art plays in our design work,” said Lyle Starr, Director of Art Services at MA. “His focus on construction portals, barriers, and the in-between spaces of built environments spark curiosity, highlighting MA’s ongoing commitment to creating meaningful, interconnected experiences across the firm’s work.”
