Colleen Herman’s (b.1982) practice is rooted in a ritualistic approach to the creative process: The color, texture, and rhythm of her surroundings are absorbed into a studio space that becomes a realm for experimentation. Herman’s appetite for discovery often extends off the canvas onto the studio walls themselves, where a vernacular that is singularly rooted in the organic begins to emerge: Her intuitive command of color, sensitivity to natural life, and respect for the legacy of Abstract Expressionism fuse to create jubilant, lyrical works that thrum with improvisational energy. Sometimes the negative space of the canvas yields to commanding painterly gestures, other times indications of flora are let to spread uninhibited throughout the picture plane. The life cycle is a throughline in a body of work that, like the human experience, is marked by an unceasing tendency towards evolution.

Herman received her B.F.A. from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (2004). Her recent solo exhibitions include shows at Sarah Brooke Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2025 & 2023); Olympia, New York, NY (2024); Mary MacGill, Germantown, NY (2022); L’editions Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2021 & 2020); and Gallery Diorama, Brooklyn, NY (2020). She has been invited to residency programs at NARANJO 141, Mexico City, MX (2024); Casa Balandra, Mallorca, ES (2022); and pocoapoco, Oaxaca, MX (2019 & 2018). Herman currently lives and works in New York, NY.

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