Focal Length Set of 2 2021 31x37

Year2021

Hand SignedLower Right 

Condition Excellent 

Framed with PlexiglassWhite Frames w/ White Mats 

Purchased fromArtist 2021 

Provenance / HistoryThis is a two piece work. Part one is 31.25 x25.25", Part 2 is 19 x6"...They hang together as shown with at least 2'' separating them. This is a complex work about visual focus and how the construction of vision occurs in the brain. Vision does not act like a camera projecting an upside down image somewhere in the brain. Rather, vision is constructed from multiple source points in the brain, including iconic image recognition, memory, motion, color sensation, and many other comparative locations...the result being a composite construction. This work is informed by neuroscience, sensory input, the process of "nexting" where the brain throws out a number of approximations(guesses) until the focus produces an acceptable image. The image can be contextually incorrect, the brain can trick itself but in most cases the visual pathway coupled with other sensory information provides for survival. There is the additional issue visual equivalency....which can reinforce visual illusion. 

Story / Additional InfoThis visually compelling work sets up the part seen removed from the context in which it has been seen and in practice can lead to mistaken perceptions...eye witness testimony attests to the lack of infallibility in the system, we often see what we want to see....the product of the iconic information stored in memory and the unsorted noise of confirmation bias we carry from our experience. The work was a part of a recent retrospective of Kerns' work at Lafayette College's Galleries. A catalog is available (Ed Kerns: Interconnected, (76 pages, 70 color illustrations, four essays). 

Certificate of AuthenticityArt Brokerage 

LID159914

Ed Kerns - United States

Art Brokerage: Ed Kerns American Abstract Expressionist Artist: b. 1945. Ed Kerns (February 22, 1945) is an American abstract artist and educator. Kerns studied with the noted Abstract-Expressionist painter, Grace Hartigan and through the elder artist came to know and work with many artists of that generation including, Phillip Guston, Willem de Kooning, James Brooks, Ernest Briggs, Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis. Born in 1945 in Richmond, Virginia, Kerns started painting at a young age. He attended the Richmond Professional Institute, receiving his BFA in 1967. He went on to the Maryland Institute, where he studied with painter Grace Hartigan. Here, Kerns received the Hoffberger Fellowship and graduated with an MFA in 1969. Kerns first gained exposure in 1972, when he was commissioned by art collector Larry Aldrich to paint 100 paintings over the course of the year as gifts.That same year, Kerns had his first solo art show at the AM Sachs Gallery in New York. Over the course of the 1970s and 80s, Kerns formed a close partnership with the Rosa Esman Gallery and exhibited ten solo shows there. Of his work in the late 1970s and early 80s, gallery coordinator Judith Stein says, “He works slowly, creating no more than ten large paintings a year. His media are acrylic, sand, and thread, the last used to stitch together sections of canvas. Often plywood or upsom board is used as support.” Listings wanted.