Brenda Goodman Detroit, Michigan, born 1943

Spanning a career of over fifty years, Brenda Goodman has relentlessly explored the physical and psychological limits of abstraction and figuration. Regarded as a “painter’s painter” for her inventive handling of paint, Goodman’s paintings range from thick impasto to thin veils of color, creating deeply interior spaces of personal confrontation and reflection.

Between 1994 and 2007, Goodman created a series of self-portraits which critic John Yau called "one of the most powerful and disturbing achievements of portraiture in modern art." The series combines her expressionist tendencies with figuration to reveal the innate vulnerability and power within one’s own mortality. Goodman's current work reflects an expanded exploration of the potentials of abstract figuration. Incised marks on the surface, new ways of organizing space, and imaginative uses of color create a new clarity of vision. The paintings invite the viewer into Goodman’s imagination, forming deeper visual narratives within the versatile materiality of paint.