FRED TERNA
SKETCHES, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND PAINTINGS
321 GALLERY
JANUARY 28–FEBRUARY 24, 2018
321 Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by Fred Terna (b. 1923). This is his first solo exhibition at the gallery.
Drawing from his experience of the Holocaust, Terna’s paintings address the psychological space of trauma, tending towards subjects like execution walls, fire, and ash. The works on view include early sketches of cityscapes, interiors, and landscapes made in Paris and New York from 1946 to 1955; color photographs taken on a road trip through California in 1967; paintings of Jerusalem's Temple Mount, drawn from imagination; and recent small-scale paintings from Terna's Particles series, a body of work made using acrylic and aggregates, including sand and pebbles collected from various beaches and deserts. Also on view is a 2017 painting entitled Donald, and in the back room, protest signs painted on discarded pillow cases and sheets made for the 2017 Women's March on Washington.
Fred Terna lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Terna was born in Vienna, and lived in Prague from 1926-1940. From 1941-1945, he was an inmate in German concentration camps, among them Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Dachau. Terna moved to Paris in 1946 and informally studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julien, where he was inspired by the work of the Cubists and post-Impressionists. After eventually settling in New York in 1952, Terna elaborated on the prevailing modes of Abstract Expressionism with a personal style that infused textural elements into his compositions. Using folded canvas, sand, and pebbles, Terna sought to activate the tactile senses, layering fields of depth and creating visual tricks.
Terna has lectured extensively and exhibited his work in several solo and group shows. His work is included in a variety of collections including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC); Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC); The Albertina Collection (Vienna, AT); The Ghetto Fighters Museum (Israel); and the Yad Vashem Museum (Israel). Recent solo shows took place at St. Francis College (Brooklyn, NY) and the Museum of Arts and Culture at New Rochelle High School (New Rochelle, NY). 321 Gallery presented his work at the 2016 NADA New York art fair and he was most recently included in Progeny!, a group exhibition at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (New York, NY).
