Rosalux Member Since 2014
In her practice, Ute Bertog looks to establish relationships between things. This may pertain to the colors, lines and shapes in a painting, and to whatever she chooses to bring into the context of painting. She is drawn to pliable material for its ability to continuously yield to intuitive adjustments before time will fix it into place, be it oil paint, clay or words. Not seeing herself as a writer, she nevertheless understands the process of painting very much akin to writing, a process of constant editing and change, yet without the goal of creating legible content. Instead she is reaching to create improvised abstract patterns that go against any sense of predictability or familiarity, trusting that eventually something meaningful will be said however ineloquently, however stumbled and stuttered, its very own syntax mangled and corrupted. Her approach is surely informed by her experience as a non-native speaker, which has afforded her a heightened awareness of language as an abstract construct. Meaning then becomes free-floating and easily separated from the sound and visual form of language. This is where imagination and play are able to readily fill in any gaps.
Ute Bertog received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an MBA from the Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. Past solo exhibitions include the Kiehle Gallery at St. Cloud State University, MN and the Rochester Art Center in Rochester, MN. Group shows include the Soo Visual Arts Center, grayDuck Gallery in Austin, TX, Thomas Barry Fine Arts in Minneapolis, Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND
and the Sioux City Art Center in Sioux City, IA. She currently lives and works in St. Paul, MN.
